A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF POSITIVE

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
(POB) – A BRIEF CRITICAL REVIEW
OF LITERATURE
Presented by,
Prof.Dr.T.MUTHU PANDIAN
M.TECH,MBA,PhD,FIE
Professor of Management Studies
PSNA College of Engineering and Technology
drtmuthupandian@gmail.com
 Presentation outline
• Introduction- POB and its four capacities
• Science behind POB
• PsyCap – A core factor/construct
• Critical discussion on POB Literature
• Future direction for research
• Conclusion
• References
 Introduction
• POB- “the study and application of positively-oriented
human resource strengths and psychological capacities that
can be measured, developed, and effectively managed for
performance improvement in today’s workplace”.
• Four key psychological resource capacities:
1. Self-efficacy - confidence
2. Hope
3. Optimism
4. Resiliency - bounce back
- for POB to enhance effectiveness and organizational
performance.
 Development and Need of POB
• Maslow, Coined by Fred Luthan, grows as
discipline different from OB, Psychology etc
• Need: Globalisation demands met. POB is better
than negative approaches to handle stress,
promote good relationships, good health
conditions
• New in POB:
Focuses on Strengths of people,
Four state-like not trait-like capacities improved
Not only performance, but also principled actions
 The science behind POB
• Seligman’ (2011) model PERMA-positive emotions, engagement,
relationship, meaning and accomplishment
• seek "to find and nurture genius and talent," and "to make normal
life more fulfilling,” rather than treating mental illness.
• Three Levels:
• 1. Subjective level- Feeling good rather doing good/good person
• 2. Individual level - Good person- virtues, future-mindedness,
capacity for love, courage, perseverance, forgiveness, originality,
wisdom, interpersonal skills and giftedness.
• 3. Group or community level- civic virtues, social responsibilities,
nurturance, altruism, civility, tolerance, work ethics, development
of citizenship and communities
 PsyCap – A Core Factor / Construct

• Four constructs- hope, optimism, resilience

and confidence combined as one produces
greater result on (Dirzyte, 2013) employee
performance.
• Nel et.al., 2015- positive capacities have
relationship with leadership in turn lead to
employee empowerment, work engagement
and job satisfaction.
 Positive psychological capital (PsyCap)
is an individual’s positive psychological
state (Luthans, 2009) of development
that is characterized by:
Critical discussions on POB Literature

• Fred Luthans -POB constructs have direct positive

correlation with work performance and organizational
outcomes.
• Four constructs of POB has a common line and
connection (Youssef & Luthans, 2007; Dawkins &
Martin, 2010)
• Criticisms and number unanswered critical questions.
No sufficient empirical evidence on POB (convergent
and discriminant validity). Conceptual papers- one
label - ‘impact/relationship between positive
psychological capacities and work performance ‘
• Problem of ‘ clear-cut distinction (Luthans &
Avolio, 2009) between ‘ state like Vs trait like ‘.
Luthans and his associates put the POB
constructs in the mid of continuum (Youssef &
Luthans, 2007) where one extreme is State and
other end is trait
• Avey & Luthans, 2008 ‘called for longitudinal
research study ‘in order to find out ‘degree of
stability’ of POB capacities over time.
• human mind is interrelated mechanism
• Hence analysed based on
• The constructs are lasting last for any
particular time duration or
• They revert after a time period
• They are unstable
 Future directions for research

• Future research direction 1: Re-examining the four

constructs of POB and if possible and required , renaming
them and other OB constructs should be empirically tested
and validated with suitable research design in order to be
included POB framework.
• Future research direction 2: Stability issue of POB
constructs must be resolved through longitudinal research
designs and a common agreement must be arrived at by
proponents of POB.
• Future research direction 3: Efficacy of POB intervention
programs must be studied over time by considering the
effect it makes on individual personality and the time span
it lasts for
 Conclusion
• This brief review have discussed some of the
critical dimensions of POB research and
attempted to originate insights about POB
concepts
 References
• Avey, J.B., Luthans, F.,& Mhatre, K.H (2008). A call
for longitudinal research in positive OB.
Leadership Institute Faculty Publications,
Retrieved from http: //digitalcommons .unl.edu
/leadershipfacpub/7
• Boniwell, I (2006). Positive psychology in a
nutshell, London: Personal well-being centre
• Donaldson, S.J., & Ia ko (2009). Paper Presented
at the First World Congress on Positiv Psychology,
June 18-21, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Paul, H., & Garg, P (2013). Healing HRM through positive
psychology, ICTMS-2013. Procedia - Social and Behavioral
Sciences 133 ( 2014 ) , pp. 141 – 150. Elsevier
• Ramlall, S.J. (2008). Enhancing employee performance
through positive organizational behaviour. Journal of
Applied Social Psychology, 38(6), pp. 1580–1600
• Seligman ,M (2018): PERMA and the building blocks of well-
being, The Journal of Positive Psychology, DOI:
10.1080/17439760.2018.1437466
• Youssef, C.M., & Luthans, F. (2007). Positive Organizational
Behaviour in the workplace: Impact of hope, optimism and
resilience, Journal of Management. 33:5, pp.777-800
•Q& A
•Thank you