A Study Of Extraordinary Performance and Virtuous Organizational Behavior

In the last two or three years, a small group of organizational scholars have begun to examine the dynamics in organizations that lead to the development of human strength, foster resiliency in employees, and produce extraordinary performance. This emphasis parallels a new movement in psychology that is shifting from the traditional focus on illness and deviancy—e.g., neurosis, abnormality, and therapy--toward "positive psychology" which focuses on human strengths and virtues such as love, hope, joy, and caring. Studying how individuals and organizations become extraordinary rather than how they cope with obstacles and trauma is the focus of this work.

The research question that is of particular interest to me is, What makes it worthwhile to spend time in the workplace? Businesses and organizations around the country have been invited to join in a study by researchers at the University of Michigan and Case Western Reserve University of the dynamics of organizations, focusing on the positive side of organizational interactions and performance.
The project is funded through a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. My colleagues in this groundbreaking investigation are Professor Kim Cameron [University of Michigan], David Bright [Case Western Reserve University], and Loren Dyck [Case Western Reserve University].

Every organization deals with problems and challenges that create the potential for conflict or personal harm. Downsizing, politicking for resources, and competing for ideas are just a few examples. In the face of such scenarios, people often find ways to preserve human dignity and engender interpersonal trust. We are interested in the practices used to cope with and overcome real or potential conflict and harm—the practices that make the workplace more civilized, humane, virtuous, or motivating.

A few firms have been observed that display "positive deviance," that is, an affirmative exception to usual organizational behavior. They possess characteristics that foster extraordinary value, remarkable performance, and high levels of excellence. Especially on the human dimension, they engender virtuousness in relationships and treatment of people. One way to illustrate this phenomenon is depicted in the figure below. It portrays a continuum ranging from ineffective, inefficient, and error-prone performance on the left side, to effective, efficient, and reliable performance in the middle, to extraordinary, excellent, and virtuous performance on the right side. Much organizational and management research has been conducted on the left and middle sections of this continuum, but the right side has been largely ignored.

|---------------------------|-----------------------------|

Ineffective                  Effective                              Excellent
Inefficient                   Reliable                                Flawless
Unethical                     Ethical                                 Benevolent
Harmful                       Helpful                                 Virtuous

On the right side of the continuum, strength-building or virtuous attributes such as compassion, forgiveness, courage, humility, and integrity are key variables. They have largely been undiscussable among practicing managers and organizational scholars, and they are usually relegated to the domains of religion, philosophy, or mysticism. Whereas individuals and organizations aspire to develop these attributes, and to have their families and work environments characterized by these qualities, no systematic investigation has occurred of the manifestations, facilitation, and effects of virtues in organizations.

Case study and anecdotal evidence suggests that organizations characterized by virtuous behavior perform in spectacular ways. Indicators of performance such as employee satisfaction, organizational learning, productivity, quality, and even shareholder value have all been found to be associated with organizational virtues such as compassion, forgiveness, humility, integrity, and hope. This study is the first systematic investigation to measure these concepts in businesses and to investigate their association with desired outcomes.

Other research questions that are of particular interest to me include:

Is "virtue" a construct that can be extrapolated from the individual unit of analysis to the organizational level? If so, how can the manifestation of "organizational virtue" be recognized and operationalized?

What organizational characteristics [i.e., size, hierarchy, organizational mission, etc.] most strongly impact organizational virtuosity?

Are certain national cultural contexts more likely to foster organizations that are predisposed to display virtuous characteristics than others?

Is "organizational virtue" predicated upon individual leadership style, or is it perpetuated by emergent organizational culture norms?