Positive psychology at work ensures a good organization culture. The presentation includes the Psycap Model of Positive Psychology along HRW Model and Emotional Intelligence.

2. Definition
Positive psychology is about scientifically informed
perspectives on what makes the life worth living. It focuses
on aspects of the human conditions that lead to happiness,
fulfillment and flourishing (The Journal of Positive
Psychology, 2006)
Aim of Positive Psychology
The aim of positive psychology is to use scientific
methodology to discover and promote the factors that
allow individuals, groups, organizations, and
communities to thrive. It is concerned with optimal
human functioning instead of pathological human
functioning.

3. Historical Perspective
• 1954 - The term “positive psychology” first appeared in
Abraham Maslow’s book “Motivation and Personality”
• Seligman is widely viewed as “ the father of positive
psychology “
• 1988 – Seligman was elected President of the American
Psychological Association (APA). During this term
positive psychology became the main theme.
• 1999 – First positive psychology summit was conducted.
• 2002 – First international conference on positive
psychology was held.
• 2006 – First dedicated Positive psychology journal
appeared ( The Journal of Positive psychology)
• 2009 – First world congress on Positive Psychology was
held.

4. Implementing positive psychology at
workplace
• Creating an environment that is relatively enjoyable and
productive.
• Creating a work schedule that does not lead to emotional and
physical distress.
• Applying positive psychology at workplace is termed as positive
organizational behavior
• POB, was coined and defined by Luthans as “the study and
application of positive oriented human resource strengths and
psychological capacities that can be measured, developed, and
effectively managed for performance improvement in today’s
workplace”
• Only those concepts were included in POB which fulfilled the
following operational criteria
– Based on theory and research
– Valid measures
– State like
– Managed for performance improvement

5. • Use of positive psychology has obvious implications
not only for therapy, well-being, education, family life,
social relations, and society at large, but, importantly,
also for organizational life and behavior.
• Considerable research evidence depict a significant
(almost .3 average correlations in meta-analysis of
numerous studies) correlation (also some causal
evidence) between health (both physical and mental),
relationships (both intimate and social) and work (both
performance and satisfaction) or what could be called
simply H-R-W well-being.

6. The H-R-W model shown in Figure indicates that there is
an interactive, reciprocal determination between one’s
health, relationships, and work

7. According to Sonja Lyubomirsky one’s happiness (or level
of positivity or H-R-W well-being) is determined as
follows:
1. About half can be attributed to a genetic, dispositional
“hard-wiring” (but not immutable) set point.
2. Only about 10 percent seems to be the result of life’s
circumstances.
3. Remaining 40 percent of one’s happiness, positivity, or
H-R-W well-being is determined by intentional activity.

8. POB
Self efficacy
Optimism
Hope
Resilience

9. Psychological Capital or PsyCap is defined as an
individual’s positive psychological state of development
that is characterized by:
1. Having confidence (self-efficacy) to take on and put in
the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks
2. Making a positive attribution (optimism) about
succeeding now and in the future;
3. Persevering toward goals and, when necessary,
redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to succeed;
and
4. When beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and
bouncing back and even beyond (resiliency) to attain
success.

10. Other positive constructs
Happiness or Subjective Well-Being (SWB)- Seligman and
Csikszentmihalyi
• Subjective well-being is a more scientific-sounding
term for what people usually mean by happiness.
• SWB is usually considered broader and is defined as
people’s affective (moods and emotions) and cognitive
evaluations of their lives.

11. SWB at work place
• In particular, SWB has demonstrated a direct
correlation to job satisfaction. A meta-analysis of 34
studies found an average correlation of .44 between
job satisfaction and life satisfaction. It was found that
SWB was a significant predictor of job satisfaction.
People who are satisfied with their lives tend to find
more satisfaction in their work
• On average, happy workers make more money, receive
more promotions and better supervisor ratings, and
are better citizens at work
• Organizations such as Toyota, the American Red Cross,
Sprint Nextel, and David’s Bridal have launched
training programs for their employees based on
happiness principles.

12. Emotional intelligence
• Emotional intelligence is a form of social intelligence that
involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others feelings
and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this
information to guide one’s thinking and action (Salovey &
Mayer, 1990)
• EI can be defined as the array of skills and characteristics
that drive leadership performance (Goleman 1995)

13. MODELS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
EmotionalIntelligence
Ability Model
Competency Model
Trait Model

14. The Ability Model of Emotional Intelligence
Salovey and Mayer’s(1990) original model described emotional
intelligence as “a form of social intelligence that involves the
ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions,
to discriminate among them, and to use this information to
guide one’s thinking and actions”.
The four branch model of emotional intelligence describes four
areas of capacities or skills which collectively describe many
areas of emotional intelligence (Mayer & Salovey, 1997).

15. The Four Branches of Emotional
Intelligence
• Perceiving Emotions: The ability to perceive emotions in
oneself and others as well as in objects, art, stories, music
and other stimuli.
• Facilitating Thought: The ability to generate, use, and feel
emotion as necessary to communicate feelings or employ
them in other cognitive processes.
• Understanding Emotions: The ability to understand
emotional information, to understand how emotions combine
and progress through relationship transitions and to
appreciate such emotional meanings.
• Managing Emotions: The ability to be open to feelings and to
modulate them in oneself and others so as to promote
personal understanding and growth.

16. Competency Model of Emotional
Intelligence
Accordingly to Goleman (1995) emotional intelligence consists
of “abilities such as being able to motivate oneself and persist
in the face of frustrations; to control impulse and delay
gratification: to regulate one’s moods and keep distress from
swamping the ability to think; to empathize, and to hope”.
In 1998, Goleman defined emotional intelligence in terms of
self awareness, self confidence, self control, commitment and
integrity, and a person’s ability to communicate, influence,
initiate change and accept change.
Based on extensive research, Goleman (1995, 1998) has
proposed five dimensions of emotional intelligence consisting
of 25 competencies namely,

17. Competencies of EI according to
Goleman
• Self awareness: a emotional self awareness, b. accurate self
assessment, and c. self confidence.
• Self regulation: a self control, b. trustworthiness, c.
conscientiousness, d. adaptability, and e. innovation.
• Self motivation: a achievement drive, b. commitment, c.
initiative, and d. optimism.
• Empathy: a. understanding of others, b. developing others, c.
service orientation, d. leveraging diversity and e. political
awareness, and
• Social skills: a influence b. communication, c. conflict
management, d. leadership, e. change catalyst, f. building
bond, g. collaboration and cooperation, and h. team
capabilities.

18. Trait Model of Emotional
Intelligence
Emotional-social intelligence is a cross-section of
interrelated emotional and social competencies, skills
and facilitators that determine how effectively we
understand and express ourselves, understand others and
relate with them, and cope with daily demands (Bar-On
2004).

19. The emotional and social competencies, skills and
facilitators referred in this conceptualization include
the five key components.
(a) The ability to recognize, understand and express
emotions and feelings
(b) The ability to understand how others feel and relate
with them
(c) The ability to manage and control emotions
(d) The ability to manage change, adapt and solve
problems of a personal and interpersonal nature
(e) The ability to generate positive affect and be self-
motivated.

20. Emotional Intelligence and work
related performance
• Competency research in over two hundred companies
and organizations worldwide has suggested that about
one-third of the difference in efficiency is due to
technical skill and cognitive ability while two-thirds is
due to emotional competence (Goleman, 1998).
• Emotional intelligence distinguished between star
performers and average performers (Spencer,1997).
• Derman (1999) showed that emotional intelligence was
highly and significantly related with business success.

21. Emotional Intelligence and Leadership
• Stone and Park (2005) found that above average leadership
group scored higher on emotional intelligence, self
awareness, self actualization, flexibility, impulse control and
problem solving as compared to below average leadership
group.
• 67% of success of a leader is determined by emotional
social intelligence (Bar-On, 2005) and 80% of exceptional
performance can be accounted on the basis of emotional
intelligence (Goleman,1998).
• Punia (1994, 1995) found that the leaders with higher
emotional intelligence see changes as opportunities, cherish
ongoing development of individual workers and organization
and create a climate in which information sharing, trust,
health, risk-taking and learning flourish.

22. The Impact of EI on Organizational
Effectiveness
• Employee recruitment and retention
• Development of talent
• Teamwork
• Employee commitment, morale, and health
• Innovation
• Productivity
• Efficiency
• Sales
• Revenues
• Quality of service
• Customer loyalty
• Client or student outcomes

23. Work LIFE Balance
• “Work-life balance is the individual perception that
work and non-work activities are compatible and
promote growth in accordance with an individual’s
current life priorities”. (Kalliath & Brough, 2008)
• The work-life balance strategy offers a variety of
means to reduce stress levels and increase job
satisfaction in the employee while enhancing business
benefits for the employer.

24. Work-life balance is increasingly an issue, because:
• More women and single parents go into work;
• Many people have more than one job;
• Workforce is growing older;
• Businesses continue to compete globally to hire
skilled workers;
• Technology changes the way we work e.g. mobile
phones and PCs disguise the distinction between work
and personal time;
• Many people have to deal with time pressure and a
shrinking workplace.

25. Work–life conflict
• Form of inter-role conflict in which work and family demands
are mutually incompatible so that meeting demands in one
domain makes it difficult to meet demands in the other
(Edwards & Rothbard, 2000; Greenhaus & Beutell 1985).

26. • Work-to-family conflict occurs when experiences at
work interfere with family life, like extensive, irregular,
or inflexible work hours, work overload and other
forms of job stress, interpersonal conflict at work,
extensive travel, career transitions, unsupportive
supervisor or organization. For example, an
unexpected meeting late in the day may prevent a
parent from picking up his or her child from school.
• Family-to-work conflict occurs when experiences in
the family interfere with work life like presence of
young children, primary responsibility for children,
elder care responsibilities, interpersonal conflict
within the family unit, unsupportive family members.
For example, a parent may take time off from work in
order to take care of a sick child.

27. TYPES
Three types of work-family conflict have been identified.
Each of these types can occur in both directions, family
to work, and work to family.
• Time-based occurs when the amount of time devoted
to fulfilling obligations in one domain reduces the
amount of time available to perform roles in other
domains.
• Strain-based occurs when psychological strain or
fatigue is experienced in one role and therefore
hinders performance or exploits resources which
would be otherwise available for another role.
• Behavior-based refers to specific patterns of in-role
behavior that may be incompatible with expectations
regarding behavior in another role.

28. CONSEQUENCES
Allen, Herst, Bruck, and Sutton (2000) describe three
categories of consequences related to WFC:
• Work-related outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction or job
performance),
• Non-work-related outcomes (e.g., life or family
satisfaction), and
• Stress-related outcomes (e.g., depression or substance
abuse).

29. Benefits of employee work life
balance
• Maximized available labor:;
• Loyal and motivated workforce
• Less stressful environment
• A wider range of candidates will be attracted
• Productivity increases
• Reduced absenteeism
• Teamwork and involvement

30. Current Practices
• Wellness programs or pay for their employees’ gym
membership as part of a benefits package.
• Some companies invite fitness trainers or yoga
instructors into the office to hold lunchtime sessions.
• Undertake initiatives to improve employees’ healthy
eating habits.
• Offer stress management programs which include
stretching, yoga, counseling, as well as bringing in
Registered Massage Therapists to work.

31. • Flextime: Choose their daily starting and ending times
within a given time called bandwidth. E.g. Hewlitt
Packard, IBM
• Compressed workweek: compressing the workweek
into fewer days
• Job sharing: splitting of a full time position between
two people, in which each works part time
• Telecommuting: work from home or off-site, Hewlitt
Packard
• PepsiCo- concierge service (oil change, baby sitter
etc.)
• Eastman Kodak – Humor room
• Ben & Jerry’s- Joy gang-plan parties etc.

32. Self
Self-esteem Self efficacy Self confidence
Factual
description of
how one
perceives oneself

33. Self
Esteem
Regard or respect that
a person has for
oneself. It is a general
feelings of self-worth
or self-value
Responsibility, Goal
Commitment,
Genuineness,
Forgiving, Internal
Values, Positivity, Self
Improvement
Self
Efficacy
Person's belief in their
ability to accomplish
some specific goal or
task. It generally
corresponds to the
level of competence an
individual feels.
Self confidence,
Accurate self
evaluation, Willingness
to take risks, Sense of
accomplishment
Self
Confidence
Combination of self-
esteem and general
self-efficacy. Belief in
one's personal worth
and likelihood of
succeeding
Self Assured,
Ambitious, Sociable,
Competitive, Risk
Taking, Hard Working,
Determined,
Accepting, Positive