Introduction

In American Psychology journal, it was observed that Positive psychology considers the average
person’ with an interest in finding out what works, what is right, and what is improving. The
affirmative school of thought highlighted the importance of individual’s strength and opened up
the area of potentials and avenues for improvement rather than revealing the significance of
positivity. Its applicative value lies in developing a positive approach to create and govern human
work force in the place of work. It applies the positive tilting of individual’s potency as well as,
psychological capacities that possibly calculated, expanded, and efficiently directed for
performance enhancement. The concept of positive psychological capital or PsyCap as proposed
by OB psychologists has emerged from the reserve of positive psychology and newly recognized
field of positive organizational behaviour. PsyCap being similar to human and social capital is a
concept derived from economic capital. The core idea behind all these varieties of capital is to
accumulate, enhance and expend resources to explore future benefits. Therefore, PsyCap is
concerned with the development of individual’s real self to the potential self. In other words,
positive PsyCap is the arrangement of four positive mental resources, that is, self- efficacy
(confidence), hope, optimism and resiliency that could help an individual to lead a more fulfilling
life at both personal and professional level.

Positive Psychology

The history of positive psychology began during the APA (American Psychological Association)
presidency tenure by Martin Seligman. According to Seligman, this branch of Psychology entirely
focused on helping people living their lives in a more meaningful and productive way by making
them understand their own abilities and potentials thereby reducing mental sickness leading
towards psychological wellness (Seligman, 2002).

Seligman focused on the area of Positive Psychology as a subject matter of his work tenure in
order to, resolve the escalating pace of mental health issues among people and revising
proceedings leading to happiness, positive personalities, prosperous culture, and a wealthy
civilization thereby unearthing and developing positive qualities among people by boosting their
level of mental health and reinforcing them to get rid of the negativities, anxiety and depression.
Thus, it could be stated that Positive psychology targets to promote and flourish mental health
among individuals, communities, and societies (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).

1
Seligman and his colleagues (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) brought a revolutionary growth
of the positivity interest group inside psychology through which organizational behaviour was
studied. Behavioural psychologists, over the past 20 years through a large number of paradigms
related to workplace behaviour and work culture have developed two similar and corresponding
fields namely, Positive Organizational Scholarship and Positive Organization Behaviour
(Luthans, 2002).

Positive Psychological Capacity (PsyCap)

In today’s dynamic era of demanding and technical environment, every flourishing organization
focuses on the vital importance of tangible - structural capital, social-relationship capital, human
capital, and psychological capital. Tangible - structural assets or financial assets (what you have?)
relates to its tangible assets such as, the machines and materials. Social- relationship assets (who
you know?) relates to social contacts, status and relationships. Human assets (what you know?)
relates to the role, competence, knowledge and ability. Positive Psychological Capital: self-
efficacy, hope, resilience and optimism (who and how you are?) is defined as a part of human
capital associated with the psychological potentials or resources that help an individual to deal
effectively within his work environment (Avolio & Luthans, 2006; Luthans et al., 2004).

In the academic work (Luthans and Youssef, 2007), the concept of Positive Psychological Capital
as an investment on people, which is beyond intellectual capacity in acquiring and sustaining the
competitive advantage was introduced. OB psychologists further considered positive
psychological capital as a higher-order core aspect (Luthans, Avolio, et al., 2007; Stajkovic,
2006). Positive psychological capital or PsyCap, is stated as positive psychological state of
development of an individual that is characterized by having confidence (self-efficacy) to take
necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks, making a positive attribution (optimism) about
succeeding in the present and in the future and persevering toward goals and redirecting paths to
goals (hope) in order to succeed and sustain when faced with adversity by going beyond
(resilience) (Luthans, Youssef, & Avolio, 2007).

Luthans and his associate (Luthans et al., 2006) considered self-efficacy, optimism, hope and
resiliency as improvable and Positive Psychological Capital (PsyCap) leading to positive
organizational behaviour criteria. However, the research and facts to date suggests that
Psychological Capital goes beyond the features of these capacities.

Employee Engagement

2
Employee engagement is observed to be associated with physical, emotional and mental
involvement of employees to their work, which automatically leads to positive outcome, thereby
increasing productivity for the organization.

Employee engagement has been indicated to be associated with commitment and dedication,
encouragement, flexibility, using human endowment to the fullest and caring for the
organization’s goals and values. Engaged employees could feel a sense of positive connection
towards their organization, thereby investing themselves in the organization as a whole, thus
producing effectiveness, commitment, OCB- values, discipline and punctuality, job satisfaction,
employee retention, loyalty, and low absenteeism in the organization that ultimately enhances
growth of the organization and individual’s self. According to a study (Smith & Mark wick, 2009)
conducted, it was observed that engaged employees are more likely to stay with the organization,
and perform 20 per cent better as compared to their colleagues thereby acting as advocates of the
business. Therefore, engaged individuals could enhance bottom line profit and increased employee
support for the organization by investing themselves completely in their work, with increased self-
efficacy and a positive impact upon health and well-being.

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 Review of Literature

The present chapter provides a brief review of literature related to the main variables under
investigation. It also gives us an idea about the ongoing researches in the present area. The
following studies provide us with the knowledge of the general conceptualization and specific
challenges which can be expected in the ongoing research, and also helps the investigator to
understand the problem from different dimensions.

Positive Psychological Capital

A study (Tosten and Toprak, 2017) was conducted on a sample of 266 teachers working in
Turkey. The objective of the investigation was to explore the effects of teachers‘ PsyCap abilities
on their emotional behaviour on the ground of their perception of the situation. The results
observed that teachers had scored high on PsyCap and there is an impact of PsyCap on the
perception of teachers‘ emotional behaviour.

In a cross-sectional study (Perez, Antino and Rublo, 2016) conducted on a sample of 798 workers
nested in 55units/ facilities with an objective to assess both a main effect at individual level
(psychological capital on burnout / quality of service) and a moderated cross-level model (intra
group conflict, conflict management climate and burnout / quality of service); result concluded
that there is a main effect of psychological capital on both burnout and quality of service. Also,
there was an association between intra group relationship conflict and burnout. Finally, there was
an interaction effect in which conflict management climate buffered the negative association
between intra group conflict and quality of service.

A study (Durrah, Alhamoud and Khan, 2016) which was conducted on a sample of 110 instructors
from three academic ranks (assistant professor, associate professor and professor) of 8 faculties
with an objective to explore the relationship between positive psychological capital and job
performance among instructors in Philadelphia university, Jordan.; results show that there is a
significant relationship between Positive PsyCap and both job performance and job satisfaction. It
also identified that job satisfaction is positively correlated to job performance.

An article (Youssef, Morgan and Luthans, 2015) discussed the relationship between psychological
capital and well- being. Reviews of various cross-sectional, longitudinal and experimental studies
indicated the relationship of PsyCap and well- being. The state- like characteristics of PsyCap
determines its developmental nature through interventions. It is also found through this article that
positive PsyCap is positively related to employees‘ well- being, workplace initiatives,
organizational goal, organizational culture and coping strategies.

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In a cross sectional study (Li LIU, et al., 2015) performed on a sample of 2,500 underground coal
miners in northeast China with an aim to analyse the effect of perceived organizational support
and PsyCap in on combating anxiety and depression; it was found that perceived organizational
support (POS) and PsyCap were negatively associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Employee Engagement

A study (Kazimoto, 2016) was conducted on retail business enterprises in Wobulenzi- Luweero
City of Uganda on 120 participants. The objective of the study is to analyse the factors effecting
employee engagement and job performance of the employees. Results revealed that the higher the
degree of employee engagement the better the level job performance. Moreover, it was found that
these retail business employees found it difficult to maintain equilibrium in their work life and
family life. Thus, they lacked work life balance. Results also showed that work assignment is also
very important for engaging employees and to guarantee an organizational permanence,
productivity and profitability.

A study (Suehs, 2015) was conducted on a sample of 585 employees, with an objective to
determine the correlation between frontline managers and supervisors' emotional intelligence and
the degree of engagement of their direct reports. The study concluded that there was a strong
correlation between frontline managers and supervisors' emotional intelligence and the degree of
engagement of their direct reports. Moreover, it was recommended that practicing management
and leadership training and developmental programs based on emotional intelligence might fortify
organizational abilities to generate and maintain employee engagement and customer - oriented
workers.

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 Significance of the Present Study
The current study is an extension of the literature to existing theory and research on organizational
behaviour related to Psychological capital, and employee engagement.

Most of the researches related to the PsyCap, and Employee engagement had been done on
employees of multinational firms/ business strata except the banking officers.

Banking personnel operates in a dynamic, technical and complex work environment due to
COVID 19, thereby increasing mental health issues and hampering organizational outcome and
employee engagement. Therefore, banking organization was included as the sample for the present
investigation.

The present study is undertaken to explore the relationship between Positive Psychological Capital
(PsyCap), and Employee Engagement (EE) on officers working in banking sector.

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 Research Methodology
Methodology is the backbone of any research endeavour. It is the blue print of the researcher is
going to examine and explore the variables of interest. It plays a leading role in carrying out the
research study systematically and objectively.

Methodology refers to systematic research and planning. Scientific investigation involves careful
and proper adaptation of research design, use of standardized tools and tests, sampling techniques,
sound procedures for collecting data, its careful study and tabulation and them, finally application
of appropriate statistical tests. These steps basically enhance the predictive value of findings; thus,
the findings may be generalized to predict the behaviour of population from which the sample has
been drawn.

Problem Statement:

“RELATIONSHIP OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL AND EMPLOYEE

ENGAGEMENTAMONG BANK OFFICERS”

This research study will use the descriptive method where in “data is collected to test the
hypothesis or to answer questions concerning the current status of the study”. A survey method is
selected for the present research study.

Variables: Variables under study in this research are as follows

 Dependent Variable – Employee Engagement

 Independent Variable – Gender, Positive Psychological Capital

Operational Definitions:

Employee Engagement: Employee engagement is a property of the relationship between an

organization and its employees. An "engaged employee" is one who is fully absorbed by and
enthusiastic about their work and so takes positive action to further the organization's reputation
and interests.

As far as this research study is concerned, employee engagement will be measured with the help
of the Gallup Q12© Employee Engagement Survey developed by Buckingham & Coffman,
(1999) and Harter et al., (2002), it starts with an item to evaluate overall workplace satisfaction,
followed by 12 items to assess various components of employee engagement.

Positive Psychological Capital: Positive psychological capital is defined as the positive and

7
developmental state of an individual as characterized by high self-efficacy, optimism, hope and
resiliency.

An individual’s positive psychological state of development that is characterized by: (1) having
confidence (self-efficacy) to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging
tasks; (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future; (3)
persevering toward goals, and when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to
succeed; and (4) when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even
beyond (resiliency) to attain success

Gender: Gender is the state of being male or female in relation to the social and cultural roles that
are considered appropriate for men and women.

Objectives: The main aim of the research study is

 To study the relationship between positive psychological capital and employee engagement
of an officers working in banking sector
 To study the effect of gender differences in positive psychological capital, and employee
engagement

Hypothesis: Based on the objectives of the research, the following hypotheses have been
formulated

 H1: There is a relationship between positive psychological capital and employee

engagement of an officers working in banking sector
 H1: There exists a significant difference exists between male and female bank employees
with respect to positive psychological capital
 H1: There exists a significant difference exists between male and female bank employees
with respect to employee engagement

Sample:

To increase credibility, it is important to choose the sample that will represent the population
under investigation. The population of the study consists of the bank employees from various
banks in _______ city.

The researcher will use the convenience sampling, where approximately 100 participants will be
given the two questionnaires and asked to complete it within time.

Measures:

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Below mentioned tools/questionnaires will be used to collect the data for this research study

 Psychological Capital Questionnaire

The positive psychological capital or PsyCap will be measured by using Psychological Capital
Questionnaire (PCQ) including the 24-item questionnaire developed by Luthans, Youssef, &
Avolio, (2007) designed to measure 4 components –self-efficacy, hope, resilience and optimism.

Responses will be collected with the help of 6 point Likert scale, on the basis of the level of
agreement or disagreement. From strongly disagree to strongly agree (1 = strongly disagree, 2 =
disagree, 3 = somewhat disagree, 4 = somewhat agree, 5=agree, 6 = strongly agree). Moreover,
reversing scored on some of the items on the PsyCap questionnaire, gives protection next to
variance attributable to measurement method.

For e.g. - ―I feel confident analyzing a long-term problem to find a solution;

―I can think of many ways to reach my current work goals;

The internal consistency (Cronbach Alpha) reliability for this scale is .92. This scale is
experimentally validated by Luthans et al. (2007).

 Gallup Q12© Employee Engagement Survey

Employee engagement will measure by using the Gallup Q12© Employee Engagement Survey
developed by Buckingham & Coffman, (1999) and Harter et al., (2002), it starts with an item to evaluate
overall workplace satisfaction, followed by 12 items to assess various components of employee
engagement.

On a five point scale, where the first item was assessed on the scale of 5= extremely satisfied to 1=
extremely dissatisfied. While the other 12 items were measured on the scale of individual level of
agreement or disagreement by way of each statement (5= strongly agree, 1= strongly disagree and 6=
don‘t know/does not apply). Here, sixth response item (don‘t know/does not apply) is unscored. It is a
standardized test which has a Cronbach's alpha reliability of 0.91 at the selected sample of business unit
(N=4, 172 business units).

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Research Procedure

This research study will be conducted among the bank employees in _____. Data will be collected
from approximately 100 participants using self-administered questionnaires.

The investigator will first approach the management of the bank and explain the purpose of the
research to them. After seeking permission from the management, the data will be collected in
small groups. The data will be collected in the premises of the bank only.

After getting permission, the investigator will visit participants and introduced her to them. Firstly,
the investigator will try to establish rapport with the participants and tell them about the purpose of
visit and gave orientation about the tools that will be administered.

Participants will also be made assured that their responses would be kept confidential and will be
used for research purpose only. The tools will administer one by one and all the instructions will
be explained to the participants. The participants will be instructed that there is no right or wrong
responses and they could take their own time in deciding any option by going through each and
every item. They will also be instructed not to waste too much time on any one item.

Data analysis

Descriptive statistics will be identified in terms of the means and standard deviations identifying
trends and distributions of scores. The data analysis will be done with the help of SPSS Ver 22 and
parametric tools mentioned below along with the hypothesis

 Objective 1
o H1: There is a relationship between positive psychological capital and employee
engagement of an officers working in banking sector (Pearson Product Moment
Correlation)
 Objective 2

o H1: There exists a significant difference exists between male and female bank
employees with respect to positive psychological capital (Independent t-test)
o H1: There exists a significant difference exists between male and female bank
employees with respect to employee engagement (Independent t-test)

The independent t-test, also called the two-sample t-test, independent-samples t-test or student's
t-test, is an inferential statistical test that determines whether there is a statistically significant
difference between the means in two unrelated groups and the same will be used in this research
study as there are two groups of medical representatives based on their experience.

10
11
 References

Durrah, O., Alhamoud, A., & Khan, K. (2016). Positive psychological capital and job

performance: the mediating role of job satisfaction. International Scientific Researches

Journal, 72(7), 214-225.

Kazimoto, P. (2016). Employee engagement and organizational performance of retails

enterprises. American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 6(04), 516.

Leon-Perez, J. M., Antino, M., & Leon-Rubio, J. M. (2016). The role of psychological capital

and intragroup conflict on employees' burnout and quality of service: a multilevel

approach. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 1755.

Li, X., Kan, D., Liu, L., Shi, M., Wang, Y., Yang, X., & Wu, H. (2015). The mediating role of

psychological capital on the association between occupational stress and job burnout

among bank employees in China. International journal of environmental research and

public health, 12(3), 2984-3001.

Luthans, F., Avey, J. B., Avolio, B. J., Norman, S. M., & Combs, G. M. (2006). Psychological

capital development: toward a micro‐intervention. Journal of Organizational Behaviour:

The International Journal of Industrial, Occupational and Organizational Psychology

and Behaviour, 27(3), 387-393.

Luthans, F., Avolio, B. J., Avey, J. B., & Norman, S. M. (2007). Positive psychological capital:

Measurement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. Personnel psychology,

60(3), 541-572.

Luthans, F., & Jensen, S. M. (2002). Hope: A new positive strength for human resource

development. Human resource development review, 1(3), 304-322.

Luthans, F., Luthans, K. W., & Luthans, B. C. (2004). Positive psychological capital: Beyond

human and social capital.

Luthans, F., Youssef, C. M., & Avolio, B. J. (2007). Psychological capital: Developing the

human competitive edge (Vol. 198). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Mavioğlu, R. N., Boomsma, D. I., & Bartels, M. (2015). Causes of individual differences in

adolescent optimism: a study in Dutch twins and their siblings. European child &

adolescent psychiatry, 24(11), 1381-1388.

Robertson-Smith, G. and Markwick, C. (2009), Employee Engagement: A review of current

thinking, IES Report 469. Brighton: Institute for Employment Studies

Seligman, M. E., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction (Vol. 55,

No. 1, p. 5). American Psychological Association.

Seligman, M., & Happiness, P. A. (2002). Using the new positive psychology to realize your

potential for lasting fulfillment.

Snyder, C. R., & Lopez, S. J. (Eds.). (2009). Oxford handbook of positive psychology. Oxford

library of psychology.

Stajkovic, A. D., & Luthans, F. (2003). Behavioural management and task performance in

organizations: conceptual background, meta‐analysis, and test of alternative models.

Personnel Psychology, 56(1), 155-194.

Suehs, D. (2015). Emotional Intelligence and Employee Engagement: A Quantitative Study to

Explore the Relationship between the Emotional Intelligence of Frontline Managers and

Supervisors and the degree of Employee Engagement of their Direct Reports in a Tertiary

Care Health Care Setting.

Tosten, R., & Toprak, M. (2017). Positive psychological capital and emotional labor: A study in

educational organizations. Cogent Education, 4(1), 1301012.

Youssef‐Morgan, C. M., & Luthans, F. (2015). Psychological capital and well‐being. Stress and Health,

31(3), 180-188.

13
 Annexure I

Employee Engagement Survey

Instructions: Please answer the following questions using the scales provided. There is no time limit
but work as rapidly as you can. Your responses will be kept confidential and will only be used for
research purposes.

a. Rating scales:
Rate the following on five point scale where ―5 is extremely satisfied and―1 is extremely
dissatisfied.

Extremely Neither Satisfied Extremely

Satisfied Dissatisfied
Satisfied Nor Dissatisfied Dissatisfied
How satisfied are you
with your organization
as a place to work?

b. Rating Scales:
Rate the following by using the following scale to indicate your level of agreement or
disagreement with each statement.
 Strongly Disagree (SD) = 1
 Disagree (D) = 2
 Neither Agree Nor Disagree (N) =3
 Agree (A) = 4
 Strongly Agree (SA) = 5
 Don‘t Know/ Do Not Applicable (NA) = 6

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 SD D N A SA NA

1 I know what is expected of me at work.

I have the materials and equipment I need

2
to do my work right.

At work, I have the opportunity to do what

3
I do best every day.

In the last seven days, I have received

4
recognition or praise for doing good work.

My supervisor, or someone at work, seems

5
to care about me as a person.

There is someone at work who encourages

6
my development.

7 At work, my opinions seem to count.

The mission or purpose of my company
8
makes me feel my job is important.
My associates or fellow employees are
9
committed to doing quality work.
10 I have a best friend at work.
In the last six months, someone at work has
11
talked to me about my progress.
This last year, I have had opportunities at
12
work to learn and grow.

15
 Annexure II

PsyCap Questionnaire (PCQ)

Instructions: Below are statements that describe how you may think about yourself right
now. Use the following scale to indicate your level of agreement or disagreement by rating
with each statement.

o Strongly Disagree (SD) = 1

o Disagree (D) = 2
o Somewhat Disagree (SWD) =3
o Somewhat Agree (SWA) = 4
o Agree (A) = 5
o Strongly Agree (SA) = 6

SA A SWA SWD D SD
I feel confident analyzing a long-term
1
problem to find a solution.
I feel confident representing my work area
2
in meetings with management.
I feel confident contributing to discussions
3
about the organization‘s strategy.
I feel confident helping to set targets/goals
4
in my work area.
I feel confident contacting people outside
5 the organization (e.g. , suppliers) to discuss
problems.
I feel confident presenting information to a
6
group of colleagues.
If I should find myself in a jam at work, I
7
could think of many ways to get out of it.
At the present time, I am energetically
8
pursuing my work goals.
9 There are lots of ways around any problem.
Right now I see myself as being pretty
10
successful at work.
I can think of many ways to reach my
11
current work goals.
SA A SWA SWD D SD
12 At this time, I am meeting the work goals

16
 that I have set for myself.
When I have a setback at work, I have
13
trouble recovering from it, moving on. (R)
I usually manage difficulties one way or
14
another at work.
I can be on my own, so to speak, at work if I
15
have to.
I usually take stressful things at work in
16
stride.
I can get through difficult times at work
17
because I‘ve experienced difficulty before.
I feel I can handle many things at a time at
18
this job.
When things are uncertain for me at work, I
19
usually expect the best.
If something can go wrong for me work-
20
wise, it will. (R)
I always look on the bright side of things
21
regarding my job.
I’m optimistic about what will happen to me
22
in the future as it pertains to work.
In this job, things never work out the way I
23
want them to. (R)
I approach this job as if ―every cloud has a
24
silver lining.

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