Amplifying effect organizational behavior

CHAPTER 7

Positive Organizational Behavior

©McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. Authorized only for instructor use in the classroom. No reproduction or further distribution permitted without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.

1

Major Questions You Should Be Able to Answer

7.1 How does understanding positive organizational behavior benefit me?

7.2 How can positive emotions make me more effective at school, at work, and in other arenas of life?

7.3 How can mindfulness contribute to my effectiveness?

7.4 How can my inner HERO benefit me at work and in my career?

7.5 How can managers create an organizational climate that fosters positive organizational behavior?

7.6 What can I do to enhance my level of flourishing?

©McGraw-Hill Education.

2

What Is Positive Organizational Behavior?

The study and application of positively oriented human resource strengths and the psychological capacities that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed for improvement performance in today’s workplace.

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Positive OB (POB): focuses on positive human characteristics that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed for performance improvement.

Identifying and applying the many positive attributes of individuals, groups, and organizations is yet another and especially powerful way of increasing your effectiveness especially in the business environment.

People can initially erroneously assume that the ideas of positive OB (POB) simply reject the hard business realities that businesses need in order to solve problems, to manage uncertainty, to overcome resistance, to achieve profitability, and to compete successfully.

The truth is that POB does not reject the value and significance of these challenges but emphasizes that well-being and thriving for individuals, groups, and organizations are the markers of success.

3

How Positivity Works

Jump to Appendix 1 for description

©McGraw-Hill Education.

4

The Benefits of Positive OB

Positive deviance

Successful performance that dramatically exceeds the norm in a positive direction

Associated with

Higher overall job performance

Less burnout

Increased commitment

Higher job satisfaction

Fewer sick days

©McGraw-Hill Education.

As shown in Figure 7.2, positive emotions, mindfulness, psychological capital, and signature strengths are the inputs that help create positivity from person factors, and organizational climate is an input that helps create positivity from situation factors.

Positive outcomes arise because of three processes: the amplifying effect, the buffering effect, and the positivity effect.

Amplifying Effect

Amplifying effect: positive practices from one individual result in additional positive practices by others, which spur positivity in others, which in turn generate other positive outcomes.

Positivity fuels more positivity, such that both the receiver and witnesses of kind acts are likely to perform kind acts of their own, creating an upward spiral of positivity.

The broaden-and-build theory maintains that positive emotions broaden one’s attention and make us more open to experience, creating an upward spiral of further positive emotions and even actions.

Prosocial behaviors: positive acts performed without expecting anything in return.

People are more likely to exhibit prosocial behaviors when POB is taking place in their work environments.

Buffering Effect

Buffering effect: positive practices buffer or reduce the impact of negative events and stressors.

When we are confronted with stressors or otherwise undesirable experiences, we utilize various social and personal resources to buffer them.

Psychological capital represents a set of personal characteristics that help us to flourish and be resilient in the face of adversity or challenging obstacles.

Positivity Effect

Positivity effect: the attraction of all living systems toward positive energy and away from negative energy, or toward that which is life giving and away from that which is life depleting.

Organizations that use positive practices are more likely to create an atmosphere of positive energy, which in turn fuels increased performance.

5

Test Your OB Knowledge (1 of 6)

The Garden Gnome Company is trying to counteract a negative situation that occurred last year by creating a positive influence. Garden Gnome is hoping to create

positive deviance.

a neutralizing influence.

an amplifying effect.

a buffering effect.

corporate social responsibility.

©McGraw-Hill Education.

The answer is D, a buffering effect.

6

The Power of Positive Emotions (1 of 3)

Positive Emotions

Are resources that fuel individual, group, and organizational success

Help build social, psychological, and physical resources

Combat negative emotions

Broaden your mindset, open you to consider new things

Have benefits which endure over long periods of time

Negative Emotions

Are limiting

Spur you to act in narrow or specific ways

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Positive and negative emotions are not polar opposites, and the world of emotions is not simply happy versus sad.

Negative emotions spur you to act in quite narrow or specific ways such as to fight or flee.

Positive emotions tend to broaden your mindset, open you to consider new, different, if not better alternatives when trying to solve a problem.

Negative emotions are often limiting while positive emotions are resources that fuel individual, group, and organizational flourishing.

Positive emotions help you build social, psychological, and physical resources that support your efforts and effectiveness in all arenas of your life—school, work, and family.

7

The Power of Positive Emotions (2 of 3)

Positive emotions have desirable effects on

Organizational commitment

Creativity

Decision making

Intentions to quit

Performance

Stress

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Positivity begets positivity, which means that not only do you reap the benefits of helping somebody else, but they too benefit, and so does the person they help, and so on, and so on.

Upward spirals of positivity: your positive behaviors, feelings, and attitudes feed your own and those of others in a continual, reinforcing process.

The positive emotions of customers can foster organizational commitment and job satisfaction in employees.

8

The Power of Positive Emotions (3 of 3)

They are contagious.

Upward spirals of positivity, where positive behaviors, feelings, and attitudes feed your own and those of others in a continual, reinforcing process

They can offset negative emotions.

Need multiple positives experiences to counter a negative experience

©McGraw-Hill Education.

9

Strategies to Increase Positivity

Create high-quality connections

Cultivate kindness

Develop distractions

Dispute negative self-talk and thoughts

©McGraw-Hill Education.

The following activities can help you increase your positive experiences and decrease your negative ones:

Create high-quality connections through any social interaction by acting as if the person is the only one in the room, by encouraging and supporting the person, by giving trust, and by having no intentions other than to goof off.

Cultivate kindness by giving yourself the goal of performing five new acts of kindness in a single day.

Develop distractions, primarily healthy distractions but allow for some unhealthy ones, to break from negativity.

Dispute negative self-talk and thoughts by stating aloud something positive about yourself, the situation, or facts.

If your positivity is not heartfelt and genuine, then you will not reap any of the benefits of positivity, and it may actually do harm.

Others are likely to see your lack of authenticity, which can erode their trust in you and your influence and credibility with them.

10

Test Your OB Knowledge (2 of 6)

Stanley would like to increase his positivity. He should do all of the following EXCEPT

establish social connections with co-workers, family, etc.

fake happiness.

go for a run when he feels negativity coming on.

use self-talk to stop negative thoughts.

volunteer to help a friend who is in a difficult situation.

©McGraw-Hill Education.

The answer is B, fake happiness.

11

Mindlessness Versus Mindfulness (1 of 2)

Mindlessness

State of reduced attention expressed in behavior that is rigid or thoughtless

Typified by a failure to control emotions

Requires minimal information processing

Automatic

Associated with poor mental and physical health

©McGraw-Hill Education.

The field of OB has recently started to examine mindfulness due to its potential to positively impact many of the outcomes in the Organizing Framework.

Mindlessness: a state of reduced attention. It is expressed in behavior that is rigid or thoughtless.

12

Mindlessness Versus Mindfulness (2 of 2)

Mindfulness

The awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose

Is in the present moment

Is nonjudgmental to the unfolding of experience moment by moment

Requires effort because the brain works in ways that detract from staying focused

Improves interpersonal communication

Requires attentional balance

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Mindfulness: the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment.

We can be mindful of both our inner world, such as our feelings and thoughts, and our outer world, including the feelings, thoughts, and interactions of others.

Mindfulness requires effort because our brains work in ways that detract from staying focused, and left unchecked, the mind will drive us toward mindlessness.

Mindfulness improves our interpersonal communications because it keeps us focused on other persons we’re involved with and the details of what they are saying.

Mindfulness requires attentional balance, which reflects your ability to maintain sustained, nonemotional attention in a specific situation.

13

Fostering Mindfulness

Inhibitors of mindfulness

Attentional deficit

Inability to focus vividly on an object

Attentional hyperactivity

Happens when our minds are racing or wandering, resulting in compulsive daydreaming or fantasizing

Benefits of mindfulness

Increased physical, mental, and interpersonal effectiveness

More effective communications

More balanced emotions

Personal satisfaction

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Inhibitors of Mindfulness

Attentional deficit: the inability to focus vividly on an object.

Attentional hyperactivity: when our minds are racing or wandering, resulting in compulsive daydreaming or fantasizing.

Rumination: the uncontrollable repetitive dwelling on causes, meanings, and implications of negative feelings or events in the past.

Research reveals that all of us do a lot of mind wandering on a daily basis, and this reduces performance, particularly for complex tasks.

Benefits of Mindfulness

The four broad benefits of mindfulness are:

Increased physical, mental, and interpersonal effectiveness.

More effective communications and decision making.

More balanced emotions.

Performance and satisfaction.

14

Test Your OB Knowledge (3 of 6)

Which of the following about mindfulness is FALSE?

Mindfulness requires a person to be present in the moment.

Mindfulness decreases the effectiveness of interpersonal communications.

Attentional deficit inhibits mindfulness.

Mindfulness can be practiced.

Mindfulness enhances a person’s ability to develop and sustain loving relationships.

©McGraw-Hill Education.

The answer is B. Mindfulness decreases the effectiveness of interpersonal communications.

15

Positive Psychological Capital

Those with high levels of PsyCap have high levels of

Hope

Efficacy

Resilience

Optimism

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Positive psychological capital (PsyCap): when people have high levels of hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism (HERO).

PsyCap is characterized by the following:

Hope (H): persevering toward goals and, when necessary, redirecting paths to goals in order to succeed.

Efficacy (E): having the confidence to take on challenging tasks and put in the effort necessary to succeed.

Resilience (R): when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond to attain success.

Optimism (O): making a positive attribution about succeeding now and in the future.

It is important to understand the components of PsyCap because it is flexible, and it has been shown to predict many of the outcomes in the Organizing Framework in desirable ways.

16

Two Components of Hope

Waypower

Means for achieving the goal

Need to see alternative paths to achieve the goal

Willpower

Having a goal and the determination to achieve it

©McGraw-Hill Education.

The two components of hope are willpower and waypower.

Hope: when a person has a goal and the determination to achieve it (willpower), and sees one or more alternative paths to achieve the goal, even when faced with adversity (waypower).

Hope, therefore, requires both a goal and means for achieving that goal.

17

Efficacy

Confidence in your ability to do something

Influences the world around you and your ability to deal with inherent challenges and opportunities

When high, leads to being more confident and positive

©McGraw-Hill Education.

As noted in Chapter 3, self-efficacy is a person’s belief about his or her chances of successfully accomplishing a specific task.

Self-efficacy influences how you perceive the world around you and your ability to deal with the inherent challenges and opportunities.

Self-efficacy is an important component of your PsyCap, and it makes people more confident, more positive, and more effective.

18

Resilience and Optimism

Resilience

Resiliency is the capacity to consistently bounce back from adversity and to sustain yourself in the face of challenges.

Optimism

Optimists view successes as due to their personal, permanent, and pervasive causes, and negative events to external, temporary, and situation-specific causes.

Optimists are realistic and flexible.

Optimism is self-inspirational.

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Resilience: the capacity to consistently bounce back from adversity and to sustain oneself when confronted with challenges.

Resiliency helps you when things go your way and when they don’t.

Resilient people are open to new experiences, flexible to changing demands, and emotionally stable when confronted with adversity.

Resilience can be improved with support such as coaching or help from others during trying times or experiences.

Optimists: people who view successes as due to their personal, permanent, and pervasive causes, and negative events as due to external, temporary, and situation-specific ones.

Optimists are both realistic and flexible.

One school of thought as to why people are optimistic in the first place is that it is our mind’s way of motivating us to move forward even if the future is uncertain.

The rationale is that if humans didn’t think that the future would be bright, then they might be crippled with fear and uncertainty, never take risks, and never better themselves or their situation.

A belief that things can or will be better in the future not only helps keep our minds at ease, but also reduces stress and helps us paint our decisions in a positive, appealing light.

19

Test Your OB Knowledge (4 of 6)

To have hope, one needs to have

efficacy.

resilience.

mindfulness.

a goal and a means for achieving the goal.

optimism.

©McGraw-Hill Education.

The answer is D, a goal and a means for achieving the goal.

20

Creating a Climate That Fosters Positive OB

Jump to Appendix 2 for description

©McGraw-Hill Education.

POB needs the right environment with respect to organizational culture and organizational climate in order to flourish.

Organizational climate: employees’ perceptions of formal and informal organizational policies, practices, procedures, and routines.

Organizational climate represents employees’ beliefs about what they see going on at work and beliefs about what is happening to them.

These perceptions can range from positive and uplifting to negative and debilitating.

Figure 7.3 identifies organizational values, organizational practices, and virtuous leadership as key contributors to an organizational climate that fosters positive OB.

21

Benefits of Virtuous Leadership

Financial performance

Customer satisfaction

Positive organizational climate

Measures of organizational effectiveness

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Virtuousness: what individuals and organizations aspire to be when they are at their very best.

The focus of virtuous leadership is to help individuals, groups, and organizations to elevate, enrich, and flourish.

Virtuous leadership will not positively affect organizational climate unless it is voluntarily done as an end in itself—something is virtuous only when it is done for the purpose of doing good.

Traits and individual differences that underlie virtuous leadership include focusing on the greater good, trust, integrity, and forgiveness.

Forgiveness: the capacity to foster collective abandonment of justified resentment, bitterness, and blame; and instead, adopt positive, forward-looking approaches in response to harm or damage.

Virtuous leadership is associated with financial performance, customer satisfaction, and subjective measures of organizational effectiveness, while a lack of virtuous leadership negatively affects individuals and organizations alike.

22

Test Your OB Knowledge (5 of 6)

The Positive Proton Company has a policy of using a panel of managers and various employees to resolve conflicts that arise. What organizational value does this represent?

restorative justice

greater good

temperance

integrity

compassion

©McGraw-Hill Education.

The answer is A, restorative justice.

23

What Is Well-Being and Flourishing?

Well-being is the combined impact of five elements (PERMA)

P = Positive emotions

E = Engagement

R = Relationships

M = Meaning

A = Achievement

Flourishing reflects the extent to which our lives contain PERMA.

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Well-being is the combined impact of five elements—positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and achievement (PERMA).

There is one essential consideration to remember about these elements. We must pursue them for their own sake, not as a means to obtain another outcome. In other words, well-being comes about by freely pursuing one or more of the five elements in PERMA.

Flourishing represents the extent to which our lives contain PERMA. When we flourish, our lives result in “goodness . . . growth, and resilience.” We should all strive to flourish because of its association with other positive health outcomes.

24

Well-Being and Flourishing (1 of 4)

Positive Emotions

Broaden your perspective about how to overcome challenges in your life

Build on themselves resulting in a spread of positive emotions

Strengthens relationships with others (the R component in PERMA)

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Positive emotions broaden your perspective about how to overcome challenges in your life. The emotion of joy is more likely to lead you to envision creative ideas during a brainstorming session.

Positive emotions also build on themselves, spreading of positive emotions within yourself and with others around you.

The emotion of gratitude makes us happy and satisfied. We also strengthen relationships with others—the “R” component in PERMA—when we express gratitude to others.

25

Well-Being and Flourishing (2 of 4)

Engagement

The extent to which you are physically, cognitively, and emotionally involved with an activity, task, or project

Flow

State of being completely involved in an activity for its own sake

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Engagement reflects the extent to which you are physically, cognitively, and emotionally involved with an activity, task, or project.

Being engaged in something has been referred to as being in the “zone” or in a state of “flow.”

Flow “is defined as the state of being completely involved in an activity for its own sake.”

Flow is a positive state because well-being is positively impacted by deep attention and engagement with an activity.

Engagement and positive emotions are not one and the same. For example, when we are in flow we are not necessarily thinking about anything; we are just doing! Our concentration is so high during flow that we use all of our cognitive and emotional resources needed for thought and feelings.

26

Well-Being and Flourishing (3 of 4)

Relationships

Positive emotions are associated with activities involving others

Social support is the amount of perceived helpfulness derived from social relationships

Esteem support

Informational support

Social companionship

Instrumental support

©McGraw-Hill Education.

While others sometimes get on our nerves, positive relationships are a strong contributor to our well-being. They buffer us from stressors and provide resources that enable us to more effectively get things done. Positive relationships fuel the giving and receiving of social support.

Social support is the amount of perceived helpfulness derived from social relationships.

We receive four types of social support from others

Esteem support. Providing information that a person is accepted and respected despite any problems or inadequacies.

Informational support. Providing help in defining, understanding, and coping with problems.

Social companionship. Spending time with others in leisure and recreational activities.

Instrumental support. Providing financial aid, material resources, or needed services.

27

Well-Being and Flourishing (4 of 4)

Meaningfulness and achievement

Meaningfulness: when someone feels a sense of belonging and serving something that is bigger than self

Achievement: pertaining to the extent to which you have a self-directed life, containing achievement for its own sake.

Flourish: occurs with achievement is pursued for its own sake

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Meaningfulness is defined as “belonging to and serving something that you believe is bigger than the self.”

The concept of meaningfulness is both subjective and objective.

Achievement pertains to the extent to which you have a self-directed “achieving life.” In other words, we flourish when we pursue achievement for its own sake. Doing so fosters feelings of mastery, which in turn enhances our self-esteem and self-efficacy.

28

Test Your OB Knowledge (6 of 6)

Which of the following is NOT a component of PERM?

positive emotions

relationships

achievement

policies and practices

engagement

©McGraw-Hill Education.

The answer is D, policies and practices.

29

Positive Organizational Behavior: Putting It All in Context

Figure 7.4 Organizing Framework for Understanding and Applying OB

Jump to Appendix 3 for description

Copyright 2014 Angelo Kinicki and Mel Fugate. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited without permission of the authors.

©McGraw-Hill Education.

30

Appendix 1 How Positivity Works

Return to Slide

Positive emotions, mindfulness, psychological capital, and signature strengths are the inputs that help create positivity from person factors, and organizational climate is an input that helps create positivity from situation factors. Positivity from these two sources contribute to positive outcomes across levels of organizational behavior.

©McGraw-Hill Education.

31

Appendix 2 Creating a Climate That Fosters Positive OB

Return to Slide

Organizational Climate That Fosters Positive Organizational Behavior

Organizational Values

Restorative Justice

Compassion

Temperance

Organizational Practices

Training

Support Programs

Human Resource Practices, Programs, and Policies

Virtuous Leadership

Greater Good

Trust

Integrity

Forgiveness

©McGraw-Hill Education.

32

Appendix 3 Positive Organizational Behavior: Putting It All in Context

Return to Slide

The Organizing Framework for Understanding and Applying OB shows the relationship between the three categories Inputs, Process, and Outcomes.

Inputs

Person factors: Emotions, mindfulness, psychological capital, and signature strengths

Situation factors: organizational culture, climate, values, virtuous leadership, and organizational practices

Leads to

Processes

Individual Level: Communication, decision-making discretion, and interpersonal conflict

Group/Team Level: Communication, civility, group dynamics

Organizational Level: Communication

Leads to

Outcomes

Individual Level: Task performance, work attitudes, flourishing, physical health, citizenship behavior and or counterproductive behavior, turnover, and creativity

Group/Team Level: group and team performance, group and team cohesion and conflict

Organizational Level: Accounting and or financial performance, organizational performance, and customer satisfaction

In return, Outcomes relates to both Inputs and Processes.

©McGraw-Hill Education.