Authenticity, Religiosity, and Organizational Opportunity

Mapping Intimacies ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-9319-6.ch004 ◽

2022 ◽

pp. 65-94

Author(s):

Ryan H. Sharp

Keyword(s):

Organizational Behavior ◽

Employee Engagement ◽

Religious Beliefs ◽

Meaningful Work ◽

True Self ◽

Positive Organizational Behavior ◽

Organizational Dialogue ◽

Religiosity And Spirituality

A relatively recent emphasis on increased authenticity in the workplace has opened conversations that have previously been considered out-of-bounds within organizational dialogue. With this emphasis has come an invitation for employees to bring their “whole self” to work. An individual's religious beliefs and spiritual inclinations are often at the heart of their so-called true self. Thus, as organizations have encouraged greater authenticity, discussions regarding religiosity and spirituality have followed. While there are some inherent dangers in incorporating religiosity and spirituality into the workplace, the primary purpose of this chapter is to show three natural ways in which these important parts of an individual's identity can be—or already are being—situated into existing and accepted areas of research. Thus, this theoretical piece provides a brief examination of the literature in the fields of positive organizational behavior, meaningful work, and employee engagement and will, in the process, analyze areas of crossover between these and religiosity and spirituality.

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The concept of employee engagement: a comprehensive review from a positive organizational behavior perspective

Performance Improvement Quarterly ◽

10.1002/piq.20110 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 24 (2) ◽

pp. 49-69 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Chang-Wook Jeung

Keyword(s):

Organizational Behavior ◽

Employee Engagement ◽

Positive Organizational Behavior ◽

Comprehensive Review

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The Relationship between Positive Organizational Behavior with Job Satisfaction, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, and Employee Engagement

International Business Research ◽

10.5539/ibr.v8n9p57 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 8 (9) ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Zahra Pouramini ◽

Marjan Fayyazi

Keyword(s):

Job Satisfaction ◽

Organizational Behavior ◽

Employee Engagement ◽

Organizational Citizenship ◽

Organizational Citizenship Behavior ◽

Citizenship Behavior ◽

Positive Organizational Behavior ◽

The Relationship

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Positive Psychology Applications

The Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195187243.013.0005 ◽

2009 ◽

pp. 34-48 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

P. Alex Linley ◽

Stephen Joseph ◽

John Maltby ◽

Susan Harrington ◽

Alex M. Wood

Keyword(s):

Positive Psychology ◽

Organizational Behavior ◽

Employee Engagement ◽

Medical Model ◽

Well Being ◽

Humanistic Psychology ◽

Human Needs ◽

Organizational Scholarship ◽

Client Centered Therapy ◽

Good Lives

Applied positive psychology is concerned with facilitating good lives and enabling people to be at their best. It is as much an approach as a particular domain of inquiry. As shown throughout this chapter, positive psychology has applications that span almost every area of applied psychology and beyond. In clinical psychology, counseling and psychotherapy, applied positive psychology builds on the traditions of humanistic psychology and Carl Rogers' client-centered therapy. It challenges the dominant assumptions of the medical model and promotes a dimensional, rather than dichotomous, understanding of mental health and mental illness. Beyond the alleviation of psychopathology, applied positive psychology has also seen the development of specific happiness-increase interventions, including counting one's blessings, using signature strengths, and paying a gratitude visit. In education, applied positive psychology has been used to promote flow in the classroom, as well as harnessing children's strengths to aid their learning and development. Forensic applications of positive psychology are represented by the good lives model of offender management, which focuses on the adaptive satisfaction of human needs. In Industrial Organizational (I/O) psychology, positive psychology applications are represented throughout work on transformational leadership, employee engagement, positive organizational scholarship, positive organizational behavior, appreciative inquiry, and strengths-based organization. In society, more broadly, applied positive psychology is shown to influence the development of life coaching and the practice of executive coaching, while population approaches are being explored in relation to epidemiology and the promotion of social well-being. Having reviewed these diverse areas, the chapter then goes on to consider the theoretical basis for applied positive psychology; the questions of who should apply positive psychology, as well as where and how; and whether positive psychology applications could be universally relevant. The chapter concludes by considering what the future of applied positive psychology may hold and suggesting that the discipline has the potential to impact positively on people throughout the world.

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Positive Workplaces

The Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195187243.013.0055 ◽

2009 ◽

pp. 578-588

Author(s):

Fred Luthans ◽

Carolyn M. Youssef

Keyword(s):

Organizational Behavior ◽

Psychological Capital ◽

Future Research ◽

Positive Organizational Behavior ◽

Performance Impact ◽

Research Directions ◽

Future Research Directions ◽

And Performance ◽

Definition Of ◽

Psychological Capacities

Over the years, both management practitioners and academics have generally assumed that positive workplaces lead to desired outcomes. Unlike psychology, considerable attention has also been devoted to the study of positive topics such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment. However, to place a scientifically based focus on the role that positivity may play in the development and performance of human resources, and largely stimulated by the positive psychology initiative, positive organizational behavior (POB) and psychological capital (PsyCap) have recently been introduced into the management literature. This chapter first provides an overview of both the historical and contemporary positive approaches to the workplace. Then, more specific attention is given to the meaning and domain of POB and PsyCap. Our definition of POB includes positive psychological capacities or resources that can be validly measured, developed, and have performance impact. The constructs that have been determined so far to best meet these criteria are efficacy, hope, optimism, and resiliency. When combined, they have been demonstrated to form the core construct of what we term psychological capital (PsyCap). A measure of PsyCap is being validated and this chapter references the increasing number of studies indicating that PsyCap can be developed and have performance impact. The chapter concludes with important future research directions that can help better understand and build positive workplaces to meet current and looming challenges.

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Meaningful Work, Job Resources, and Employee Engagement

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13074045 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (7) ◽

pp. 4045

Author(s):

Simon L. Albrecht ◽

Camille R. Green ◽

Andrew Marty

Keyword(s):

Employee Engagement ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Meaningful Work ◽

Organizational Outcomes ◽

Job Resources ◽

Psychological State ◽

Future Research ◽

Theoretical Frameworks ◽

Positive Direct ◽

The Relationship

Meaningful work and employee engagement have been the subject of increasing interest in organizational research and practice over recent years. Both constructs have been shown to influence important organizational outcomes, such as job satisfaction, wellbeing, and performance. Only a limited amount of empirical research has focused on understanding the relationship within existing theoretical frameworks. For this study, meaningful work is proposed as a critical psychological state within the job demands-resources (JD-R) model that can therefore, in part, explain the relationship between job resources and employee engagement. Survey data collected from 1415 employees working in a range of organizations, across a number of industries, were analyzed with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM). In support of expectations, job variety, development opportunities, and autonomy, each had a significant and positive direct association with meaningful work. These job resources also had a significant and positive indirect effect on employee engagement via meaningful work. Although job variety, development opportunities, autonomy, and feedback had significant positive direct associations with engagement, contrary to expectations, supervisor support had a negative association with engagement. The final model explained a sizable proportion of variance in both meaningful work (49%) and employee engagement (65%). Relative weights analyses showed that job variety was the strongest job resource predictor of meaningful work, and that meaningful work was more strongly associated with employee engagement than the job resources. Overall, the results show that meaningful work plays an important role in enhancing employee engagement and that providing employees with skill and task variety is important to achieving that goal. Practical implications, study limitations, and future research opportunities are discussed.

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