Abstract
Personal and shared vision have a long history in management and organizational practices yet only recently have we begun to build a systematic body of empirical knowledge about the role of personal and shared vision in organizations. As the introductory paper for this special topic in Frontiers in Psychology, we present a theoretical argument as to the existence and critical role of two states in which a person, dyad, team, or organization may find themselves when engaging in the creation of a personal or shared vision: the positive emotional attractor (PEA) and the negative emotional attractor (NEA). These two primary states are strange attractors, each characterized by three dimensions: (1) positive versus negative emotional arousal; (2) endocrine arousal of the parasympathetic nervous system versus sympathetic nervous system; and (3) neurological activation of the default mode network versus the task positive network. We argue that arousing the PEA is critical when creating or affirming a personal vision (i.e., sense of one’s purpose and ideal self). We begin our paper by reviewing the underpinnings of our PEA–NEA theory, briefly review each of the papers in this special issue, and conclude by discussing the practical implications of the theory.
Highlights
For many years practitioners and academics alike have argued that the creation of a vision, be it at the individual, team, or organizational level, motivates people to action and inspires them to reach beyond their current state
As an introduction to the papers in this special issue, we present a series of theoretical propositions regarding the existence and critical role of two psycho-physiological states which we believe are intricately involved in the creation and realization of a personal vision or shared vision: the Positive Emotional Attractor (PEA) and the Negative Emotional Attractor (NEA)
The requirement of a person being in the PEA to contemplate and frame a personal vision was explained, as well as how discussing one’s aspirations, hopes, and a vision can tip a person into the PEA state
Summary
For many years practitioners and academics alike have argued that the creation of a vision, be it at the individual, team, or organizational level, motivates people to action and inspires them to reach beyond their current state. As an introduction to the papers in this special issue, we present a series of theoretical propositions regarding the existence and critical role of two psycho-physiological states which we believe are intricately involved in the creation and realization of a personal vision or shared vision: the Positive Emotional Attractor (PEA) and the Negative Emotional Attractor (NEA). PEA, vision, and shared vision of the first theories that brings together and integrates early work on emotion and the self with recent advances in physiological measurement and neurological activity This is one of the first papers that addresses the underlying mechanism of the visioning process and sheds light on how elements of the process of arriving at a vision impact the content of the vision that is developed – which we know from existing research, impacts the effectiveness of that vision (Kantabutra and Avery, 2010). We conclude with a discussion of the practical implications of PEA–NEA theory and directions for future research
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