Have you ever dreaded going to work because you sense a weight in the air as soon as you enter the building? Successful businesses understand that unhappy workers put in less effort at work and are more likely to quit, taking their priceless knowledge and skills with them (Nielsen & Einarsen, 2012). Positive organizational behavior and experiences, on the other hand, can encourage improved employee performance.
A company’s productivity is largely dependent on its workforce. A favorable work atmosphere has a variety of advantages, including greater productivity and boosted morale among employees.
This article offers advice on how employers might promote positive behavior in the workplace, examines instances of positive workplace behaviors, and elements that affect workplace positivity.
What is Positive Organizational Behavior?
The investigation of the relationship between joyful feelings and productive job performance is positive organizational behavior. It explores the application of positive psychology principles in the workplace and the training of staff members to enhance their positive psychological resources. Higher-performing employees, according to researchers studying good organizational behavior, are those who have developed hope, optimism, and resilience.
According to these studies, employees who have hope put effort into achieving goals and employing willpower to overcome obstacles. They prepare for eventualities and assess things as they happen.
Employees who are inspired by this good organizational behavior search for creative solutions to complete tasks when they emerge. According to the notion, they see issues as problems and work more efficiently to achieve solutions that are good for the business.
Four elements of organizational behavior
- People: The most important component of an organization is its people. Without people, no business could exist. People are formally ranked inside an organization, such as by department, or informally, such as when work friendships arise. To achieve organizational goals, groups are dynamic, always changing or dissolving as new ones emerge.
- Structure: The structure of an organization establishes the connections and duties amongst employees, frequently creating a hierarchy that comprises executives, managers, supervisors, and colleagues. It indicates job duties and establishes boundaries between leadership and direct reports.
- Technology: It executes things more quickly and cheaply. Technology consists of both software and hardware, such as computers, machines, and office programs. Because technology makes work significantly simpler, but also frequently blurs the barriers between work and home life with 24/7 access to email and office portals. Technology etiquette may be established by businesses as part of their dedication to good organizational behavior.
- External environment: Economic, political, sociological, geographical, and legal factors have an impact on this aspect. Many of which are essentially outside the control of an organization. Companies must control how these elements affect the working environment, as well as the attitudes and overall well-being of their workforce.
Psychological Capacities of POB
- Self-efficacy: The idea that one has the ability to execute the courses of actions required to manage prospective situations, is what Bandura refers to as self-efficacy. Of the four skills, self-efficacy fits the POB requirements the best. It appears that people’s self-efficacy beliefs influence how much time and effort they will put into an activity and how long they will stick with it.
- Hope: By Snyder, Irving, and Anderson’s definition, hope is “a positive motivational state that is based on an interactively derived sense of successful (1) agency (goal-directed energy) and (2) pathways (planning to meet goals).” Employees have a feeling of agency or internalized control that fosters resolve and drive (willpower) to attain their goals because they have the hope of doing so. In order to accomplish their objectives and get around barriers, they would also be able to develop and employ other routes and backup plans (way power).
- Optimism: Positive psychologists define optimism as a cognitive trait characterized by an expectation of a favorable result and/or a favorable cause attribution. Christopher Peterson, the Science Director of the VIA Institute on Character, once highlighted, “Optimism is not merely a matter of cold cognition. Forgetting the emotional aspect that accompanies optimism makes it challenging to understand its dual nature as both motivated and motivating.”
- Resilience: According to Luthans (2002), resilience is “the capacity to rebound from adversity, conflict, failure, or even positive events, progress, and increased responsibility.” The positive psychology perspective in management is a learnable capacity that can be found in most individuals. It can also be measured as a state-like attribute. Workplace resiliency incorporates a proactive element that encourages discrepancy formation even in the absence of external threats.
How to apply POB?
- Establish a Positive workplace
- Understand the benefits of a diverse workforce
- Determine and address the underlying causes of problems at work
- Draw attention to a company’s human resources
- Set up a business for long-term success.
Positive organizational behavior enhances our understanding of our own behavior, the environment, and that of others.
Related: Organizational Psychology and its Role in Helping Human Resource Management
This knowledge can improve your ability to resolve disputes amicably and forge closer bonds with others. This also enable us to perform better at work and feel more fulfilled. When you share the same goals with your coworkers and bosses, it fosters dedication. This inspiration drives you to start the day with full commitment. The route to a higher standard of living is in organizational behavior.