A Dialectical Approach to Positive Organizational Studies

Miguel Pereira Lopes

doi:10.4236/ajibm.2013.32024

Abstract

Over the last decade, an academic movement emerged towards the study of positive phenomena in management and organization studies. Since then, two different scientific research streams have emerged in line with this positive approach to management: 1) positive organizational scholarship (POS), which proposes a trait approach view of positive virtues and strengths and sees the environment as a moderator variable which facilitates or not the exhibition of corresponding positive behaviours; and positive organizational behaviour (POB), which defends a state-like perspective of positive characteristics, thus putting a strong emphasis on situational factors as determinants of positive behaviour, leaving a marginal role to positive psychological traits. As a critical comparison between these two different research streams is yet to be done, in this paper I propose a dialectical approach to study positivity in organizations and contrast these two different ontological approaches to positivity in organizations. I presented arguments to demonstrate that each of these approaches alone constitute quite a limited proposal in that each of them seems to misleadingly assume that: traits cannot be changed; they show incongruence between assumptions and purpose and; they constitute biased viewpoints. A dialectical approach makes possible to overcome these shortcomings by assuming both personality characteristics and environmental features relate each other in an intertwined complex way to produce positive behaviour in organizations. I finally present some practical implications that a dialectical approach would have to organizations and managers.

Highlights

Over the last decade, an academic movement emerged towards the study of positive phenomena in peoples’ life [1,2,3]
Two different scientific research streams have emerged in line with this positive approach to management: 1) positive organizational scholarship (POS), which proposes a trait approach view of positive virtues and strengths and sees the environment as a moderator variable which facilitates or not the exhibition of corresponding positive behaviours; and positive organizational behaviour (POB), which defends a state-like perspective of positive characteristics, putting a strong emphasis on situational factors as determinants of positive behaviour, leaving a marginal role to positive psychological traits
Two different approaches rose from the study of positive behaviour in organizations: positive organizational scholarship (POS) and positive organizational behaviour (POB)

Summary

Introduction

An academic movement emerged towards the study of positive phenomena in peoples’ life [1,2,3]. Resilience, positive emotions, optimism, energizing relationships, or happiness, just to name but a few, have been targeted and studied by management scholars [4] As this movement unfolded, two different approaches rose from the study of positive behaviour in organizations: positive organizational scholarship (POS) and positive organizational behaviour (POB). Ontology refers to the assumptions about primitive elements or components of reality and describes the facts to be considered in scientific analysis, specifying what exists [5]. I discuss some advantages of adopting a dialectical approach to the study of positivity in organizations With this in mind I structured the present paper by outlining each approach’s assumptions, making the case for a dichotomy argument. I discuss the implications of adopting such an integrative view in terms of its conceptual, methodological and applied aspects

Positive Organizational Scholarship

Positive Organizational Behavior

Shortcomings of POS and POB

Immutability of Traits

Incongruence between Assumptions and Purpose

Unbalanced Character

An Integrative Dialectical Approach

Conceptual Implications

Methodological Implications

Practical Implications