There are three strings of research that in my view connect to positive organizational psychology:

Personal Initiative

In a number of (partly longitudinal) studies collaborators and I have shown that personal initiative is a behavior that is characterized by being self-starting, by proactively preparing yourself for future opportunities and problems, and by overcoming barriers (Frese & Fay, 2001; Frese, Kring, Soose, & Zempel, 1996). Personal initiative behavior has been shown to be positively related to performance in entrepreneurs, being able overcome unemployment quickly, increasing career chances, shaping ones workplace in a positive way which, in turn, increases personal initiative (Frese, Garst, & Fay, 2005). Climate for initiative in companies is directly and indirectly related to increases of profitability of the firms (Baer & Frese, 2003). Thus, personal initiative is an active approach to life that allows people to shape their environment to a certain extent and to deal with the problems in a constructive fashion.

Psychological predictors of entrepreneurial success

In a number of studies, many of them in developing countries, collaborators and myself have been involved in working on psychological predictors of entrepreneurial success. An active approach is important and is part of a general entrepreneurial orientation. We have looked at both personality factors as well as concrete action planning; we found that action planning is a mediator between personality and cognitive ability effects and entrepreneurial success (Frese, Krauss et al., 2005). We found that psychological predictors have a strong relationship with success in a number of studies, both in the developing and underdeveloped world (for example, in Africa) (Frese, 2000; Frese, Brantjes, & Hoorn, 2002; Frese, van Gelderen, & Ombach, 2000). We have then turned to changing entrepreneurs by introducing a training program that emphasizes personal initiative and planning and have found in two studies (in Africa and in Germany) that a three-day psychological training course can change entrepreneurial actions quite strongly and that these changes lead to higher success in terms of growth (Frese, Friedrich, & Hass, 2005; Glaub, Gramberg, Friedrich, & Frese, 2005).

Error management and error management training

I have been very much interested in errors and have tried to show how errors can have positive consequences for learning (Frese, 1995). I differentiate relatively strongly between approaches of error management and error prevention. While error management deals with the negative error consequences after an error has occurred and attempts to increase the positive error consequences, error prevention deals with the negative error consequences before an error has occurred. Moreover, error management attempts to increase the positive consequences of errors. One of the most important positive consequences of errors is that errors lead to fresh thinking, new ideas, and a more conscious approach to work including a higher degree of meta-cognitive activities. To study the effects of error management, we developed an error management training which we used to increase various computer oriented skills. We found that error management training needs to use so-called error management instructions which encourage people to learn from errors and to not get worried about errors (Heimbeck, Frese, Sonnentag, & Keith, 2003). Once they have these error management heuristics (as we also call them), a higher emphasis of errors in the training process will actually increase meta-cognitive activities (thinking about the issues and attempting to deal with the issues from interesting perspectives). Moreover, error management training also leads to a higher degree of dealing with negative emotions that errors may sometimes produce (Frese et al., 1991). The two factors, meta-cognitive activities and dealing with negative emotions and emotion control produces the positive performance effects that we typically find in error management trainings (Keith & Frese, 2005). We also found that an error management culture in organizations is related to future increase of profitability (van Dyck, Frese, Baer, & Sonnentag, in press).

Taken together, these various approaches all have one thing in common. They think of human beings as active, experimenting, who have a tendency to change the environment. In this way we have come to think of action theory as a good approach to deal with the various issues. Action regulation theory is a tradition that is quite strong in Germany, that attempts to look at how people regulate their work actions so as to optimise their own development and the change of the situation (Frese & Zapf, 1994). We think that this action theory approach to action regulation helps us to give us a framework from which we have looked at various issues of positive organizational psychology.

Please see my webpage: www.frese.org

Literature

Baer, M., & Frese, M. (2003). Innovation is not enough: Climates for initiative and psychological safety, process innovations, and firm performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 24, 45-68.

Frese, M. (1995). Error management in training: Conceptual and empirical results. In C. Zucchermaglio, S. Bagnara & S. U. Stucky (Eds.), Organizational learning and technological change (pp. 112-124). Berlin: Springer.

Frese, M. (Ed.). (2000). Success and failure of microbusiness owners in Africa: A psychological approach. Westport, Conn.: Quorum Books.

Frese, M., Brantjes, A., & Hoorn, R. (2002). Psychological success factors of small scale businesses in Namibia: The roles of strategy process, entrepreneurial orientation and the environment. Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, 7, 259-282.

Frese, M., Brodbeck, F. C., Heinbokel, T., Mooser, C., Schleiffenbaum, E., & Thiemann, P. (1991). Errors in training computer skills: On the positive function of errors. Human Computer Interaction, 6, 77-93.

Frese, M., & Fay, D. (2001). Personal Initiative (PI): A concept for work in the 21st century. Research in Organizational Behavior, 23, 133-188.

Frese, M., Friedrich, C., & Hass, L. (2005). Training entrepreneurs for higher efficiency and effectiveness: A psychological training study. Univ of Giessen: Report (German).

Frese, M., Garst, H., & Fay, D. (2005). Making Things Happen: Reciprocal Relationships between Work Characteristics and Personal Initiative (PI) in a Four-Wave Longitudinal Structural Equation Model. Univ of Giessen: submitted for publication.

Frese, M., Krauss, S., Escher, S., Grabarkiewicz, R., Friedrich, C., & Keith, N. (2005). Micro business owners characteristics and their success: The role of psychological action strategy characteristics in an African environment. Giessen: Dept. of Psychology, submitted for publication.

Frese, M., Kring, W., Soose, A., & Zempel, J. (1996). Personal Initiative at work: Differences between East and West Germany. Academy of Management Journal, 39(1), 37-63.

Frese, M., van Gelderen, M., & Ombach, M. (2000). How to plan as a small scale business owner: psychological process characteristics of action strategies and success. Journal of Small Business Management, 38(2), 1-18.

Frese, M., & Zapf, D. (1994). Action as the core of work psychology: A German approach. In H. C. Triandis, M. D. Dunnette & L. Hough (Eds.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (Vol. 4, pp. 271-340). Palo Alto, California: Consulting Psychologists Press.

Glaub, M., Gramberg, K., Friedrich, C., & Frese, M. (2005). Personal Initiative Training for Small Business Owners in South Africa: Evaluation Study of a 3-day-Training Program. Giessen: Univ of Giessen.

Heimbeck, D., Frese, M., Sonnentag, S., & Keith, N. (2003). Integrating Errors into the Training Process: The Function of Error Management Instructions and the Role of Goal Orientation. Personnel Psychology, 56, 333-362.

Keith, N., & Frese, M. (2005). Performance Effects of Error Management Training: A Meta-Analysis. submitted for publication.

van Dyck, C., Frese, M., Baer, M., & Sonnentag, S. (in press). Organizational error management culture and its impact on performance: A two-study replication. Journal of Applied Psychology.