Psychological Capital:A Review of Current Trends

What the paper says

Positive Psychology The term was first introduced by Abraham Maslow (1954) in his book Motivation and Personality. After more than four decades, it was revived by Martin Seligman as it became theme of his term as president of American Psychological Association in 1998. The positive psychology movement (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Snyder & Lopez, 2002) emerged because it was felt that not enough focus was given to strengths and positive characteristics of people, groups and society as opposed to negative traits, destructive behavior and psychological disorders. This encouraged new research and applications well beyond discipline of traditional psychology. Origin & Definition The positive psychology movement also led to a surge of interest and refocus on positive-oriented research in organizational behavior (OB) studies. This was spearheaded by Luthans (2002a, 2002b),who formally defined positive organizational behavior (POB) 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 (Luthans, 2002b: 59). The five broad perceived needs for initiating focused research on POB has been discussed by Youssef and Luthans (2011) which include following: Balanced Approach: Given that OB from beginning was dominated by research on negativity there was a felt need to overcome this historical imbalance. This required approach focusing equally on impact of positivity and negativity in workplace. Evidence-based Positivity: OB must focus on taking a theory and research-driven approach along with valid and reliable measures as crucial selection criteria for psychological resources to be included in its domain for study and application. Uniqueness: Organization research needed to adapt new perspectives, constructs and approaches for meeting challenges of emerging 21st century environment. Developmental Approach: In organizational aspects, focus has usually been on selecting individuals with stable traits for high productivity with assumption that they will continue to be high performers. POB on other hand adopts a developmental approach and seeks to build, develop and foster positivity in workplace. Performance Orientation: Finally, POB recognizes and addresses need for focus on performance by highlighting psychological resources that can have a measurable impact on performance and thus ensure returns for organization. Is POB then merely a framing of existing OB theories in a positive note? The answer to this question is no, since POB sets conditions for inclusions which are more than just a reframing of existing OB concepts. Thus, POB, like positive psychology, does not claim to discover new significance of positivity but rather calls attention to theory development, research and application of positive traits, behavior, and states in organizations (Luthans & Youssef, 2007).It follows in footsteps of positive psychology, which focuses on individual's positive strengths and psychological capabilities. The field of POB has since then received considerable attention from researchers who gave a renewed emphasis on importance of a positive approach at work place. As of now, self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience have met inclusion criteria for POB research which together represent psychological capital (PsyCap), currently most relevant, construct developed by Luthans and Youssef (2004). Psychological Capital (PsyCap) PsyCap has been defined as, an individual's positive psychological state of development characterized by: (1) having confidence (efficacy) to take on and put in necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks; (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in future; (3) persevering towards 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 (resilience) to attain success (Luthans, Youssef & Avolio, 2007:3). …