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for POSWhat
is Positive Organizational
Scholarship?
Download the Essence of POS
document
(PDF)
Organizations are
the mediating
institutions that
create most of what
society needs –
whether it is
education, business
enterprise or
health. At the
Stephen M. Ross
School of Business
at the University of
Michigan, a growing
cohort of faculty
experts is
challenging the
traditional belief
that good management
equates with
maintaining order
and seeking
conformity. These
forward-thinking
researchers are
establishing the
foundation for a new
academic discipline
that has
wide-ranging and
deep implications
for how individuals
think about human
capabilities and
organizational
performance. This
new discipline is
called Positive
Organizational
Scholarship – POS.
Positive
Organizational
Scholarship is an
exciting new
movement in
organizational
studies that draws
on path-breaking
work in the
organizational and
social sciences. It
focuses on the
dynamics in
organizations that
lead to developing
human strength,
producing resilience
and restoration,
fostering vitality,
and cultivating
extraordinary
individuals.
Positive
Organizational
Scholarship is based
on the premise that
understanding how to
enable human
excellence in
organizations will
unlock potential,
reveal
possibilities, and
facilitate a more
positive course of
human and
organizational
welfare. POS does
not adopt one
particular theory or
framework, but it
draws from the full
spectrum of
organizational
theories to
understand, explain,
and predict the
occurrence, causes,
and consequences of
positivism. Research
findings to date
indicate that
enabling positive
qualities in
individuals leads to
exceptional
organizational
performance.
At its core,
Positive
Organizational
Scholarship
investigates
“positive deviance,”
or the ways in which
organizations and
their members
flourish and prosper
in extraordinary
ways. Indeed, the
discipline’s name
embodies the core
values of the
movement. “Positive”
addresses the
discipline’s
affirmative bias.
“Organizational”
focuses on the
processes and
conditions that
occur in
organizational
contexts.
“Scholarship”
reflects the rigor,
theory, scientific
procedures and
precise definition
in which the
approach is
grounded.
This positive
approach does not
ignore, deny, or
denigrate the
negative phenomena
and problems found
in organizations. It
seeks, instead, to
study organizations
and organizational
contexts typified by
appreciation,
collaboration,
vitality, and
fulfillment, where
creating abundance
and human well-being
are key indicators
of success. It seeks
to understand what
represents the best
of the human
condition.
Positive
Organizational
Scholarship is
inclusive,
attracting senior
and junior scholars,
specialists across a
spectrum of
disciplines, and
practitioners from
the public and
private sectors. At
the University of
Michigan, scholars
from the schools of
Business, Education,
Medicine, Public
Health, Music, and
Literature, Science
& Arts meet
regularly to foster
collaborative
research and to
share ideas for
application. A great
deal of intellectual
energy is produced
by these
associations and
interactions,
including
conferences,
research
initiatives, and
classroom teaching
materials. The
discipline’s unique
focus on positive
organizational
dynamics will most
certainly uncover
additional new
sources and forms of
human capability.
Download the Essence of POS
document
(PDF)
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