Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship

Ross School of Business

 
Contact Information
Core Activities
Faculty and Staff
Domains of Excellence
Mission
Related Organizations
 
 
HomeCenter for POSMission

Mission

The Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship is a community of scholars devoted to energizing and transforming organizations through research on the theory and practice of positive organizing and leadership.

Download Mission Document (PDF)
 

Key Activities

 
  Create and test new theories of positive organizational behavior and research instruments to measure positive organizational phenomena.
Develop and market POS educational cases and tools.
Disseminate POS ideas and intellectual products to scholars, students, corporations, nonprofits, and communities.
Develop co-learning partnerships with select companies and nonprofit organizations.
 

Research Domains of Excellence

 
  Compassion
Organizational Virtuousness
Positive Emotions
Positive Identity
  Reflected Best Self
Positive Leadership
  Empowerment
Fundamental State of
Leadership
  Positive Social Capital
  Energy Networks
Generalized Reciprocity
High-Quality
Connections
Resilience
Thriving
Values

Faculty

The Core Faculty of the Center are Wayne Baker (director), Kim Cameron, Jane Dutton, Bob Quinn, Gretchen Spreitzer, and Lynn Wooten who are joined by Faculty Associates (POS scholars at the University of Michigan) and Faculty Affiliates (POS scholars at institutes and organizations around the world). The faculty of the Center are members of a large, global network of scholars working to push the frontiers of POS.

Positive Organizational Scholarship

Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) is an exciting new movement in organizational studies that draws on the path-breaking work in the organizational and social sciences. "Positive" indicates the discipline's affirmative bias; "organizational" focuses on the processes and conditions in organizational contexts; and "scholarship" reflects the rigor, theory, and scientific procedures that ground the POS approach.

The premise of POS research is that by understanding the drivers of positive behavior in the workplace, organizations and individuals can flourish. POS does not adopt one particular theory or research method but draws from the full spectrum of theories and methods to understand, explain, predict, and create high performance.

Download Mission Document (PDF)