Dorcas Rochelle P Astudillo

EM215 - Human Behavior in Organization

POSITIVITY: AN APPROACH TOWARDS BETTER WORK PERFORMANCE

Positive Organizational Behavior (POB)

POB is defined by Luthans (2002) as “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” (p.52). Luthans

It aims more on identifying positive characteristics and enforcing such positive

characteristics to better the performance of a person in the organization. Which is actually a
good approach; people tend to see more of the “bad” in a person, judging through past
mistakes or lack of knowledge on a certain subject. Instead of focusing on a persons’ lacking,
POB shifts our focus towards the talent and skills a person has, and building them up for them
to surpass their lacking and develop on their own terms.

The open-to-development criterion of POB actually fascinates me in terms that would a

manager be able to see a development outside an employee’s mistake or wrongdoings, “to
become open learning, development, change and management in the workplace”. POB
capacities are state-like, not trait-like, which means they can be learned and developed. This
implies that performance can be improved by focusing on self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and
resiliency — more effective than trying to change fundamental personality traits.

I view such criterion as a foresighted vision, seeing in advance what can be learned in
struggles or adversities. POB results in positive behaviors such as altruism, conscientiousness,
civic virtue, sportsmanship, and courtesy. POB encourages principled actions and appropriate
whistle-blowing.

Confidence/Self Efficacy

One psychological capacity of POB discussed in the reading was confidence or self
efficacy which was defined as: “Self efficacy refers to an individual’s conviction about his or her
abilities to mobilize the motivation, cognitive resources and courses of action needed to
successfully execute a specific task with a given context” (Stajkovic & Luthans, 1998b, p.66).
Self-efficacy belief appears to determine how much effort people will spend on a task and how
long they will persist with it.

Such confidence developed through mastery with a dash of recognition goes a long way
in a person’s development in the organization. Some managers tend to criticize employees
when they are new and are committing mistakes one after the other, I was lucky enough to
have a leader who had guided when I was still new in our organization. He had patiently tutored
Dorcas Rochelle P Astudillo
EM215 - Human Behavior in Organization

me when my reports are wrong or are misguided and would recognized my efforts in learning
more and exerting more effort to the betterment of my job and in extension the organization.

Hope

In the reading, hope was defined as both willpower (agency) and way power (pathways).
With the hope to achieve certain goals, employees have the sense of agency or internalized
control that creates the determination and motivation (willpower) to accomplish their goals.
Such goals are always reinforced by leaders. Leaders became a reminder of the goals and
objectives of an organization and all else will follow.

They would also be able to create and use alternative pathways and contingency plans
to achieve their goals and overcome obstacles (waypower). This is rather evident when we have
our regular Monday meetings we meet to set goals for future activities, delegate the roles and
foresee future possible problems, risks or threats we may encounter and always have a plan B
to Z. Every activity we held are successful some may be rescheduled yet still it is successfully
done because of such contingency plans

Resiliency

And lastly but never the least, resiliency which is defined as: “the capability of
individuals to cope successfully in the face of significant change, adversity or risk. This capability
changes overtime and is enhanced by protective factors in the individual or environment”
(Stewart, Reid & Mangham, 1997, p.22)

It simply is a positive bounce-back reaction towards setbacks. The positive psychology

perspective in management on resilience is that it is a learnable capacity that can be developed
in the most ordinary of people and measured as state like. Luthans and Youssef proposed that
resiliency in workplace embrace a proactive dimension that promotes discrepancy creation
even in the absence of external threats.

Conclusion

POB view change management as a force for positive outcomes. Solve problems in
innovative ways. Stay focused on the task at hand. Encourage participation and collaboration
from all stakeholders. Emphasize “human values” such as honesty, fairness and cooperation.
Take action, a fundamental to positive organizational behavior in the workplace.