Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Optimism at Work: Human Resource Management

  • Chapter
Cultures of Optimism

Abstract

The promotion of optimism at work, particularly, though not exclusively, in the United States, has in recent years featured prominently in the never-ending organisational quest to increase productivity and secure competitive advantage. The key agents of this are employers and managers, operating within the general area of what is now usually referred to as human resource management (HRM). Indeed, according to some analysts, the nurturing of an optimistic attitude within the workforce has now become central to the HRM function. Michelle Conlin, for example, BusinessWeek’s senior writer on working life and the labour market, noted in 2009 that:

Most human resource managers base their motivational policies on a simple psychological premise: that optimistic engaged employees are more productive and hence can help their employers grow and make more money. Put simply, workplace optimism, if nurtured properly, can be a competitive advantage.1

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. OECD (2010), Structural and Demographic Business Statistics 2010, Paris: OECD.

    Google Scholar 

  2. For useful accounts of the development of HRM, see Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Approach, ed. by Julie Beardwell and Ian Claydon, 6th edn, Harlow: Pearson Education Limited; David Farnham (2010), Human Resource Management in Context: Strategy, Insights and Solutions, 3rd edn, London: Cipd Academic; and The Oxford Handbook of Human Resource Management, ed. by Patrick Wright, John Purcell and Peter Boxall, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Extensive information on the HR profession can be found on the website of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) at https://www.cipd.co.uk/. The CIPD describes itself as the world’s largest Chartered HR and development professional body.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Tony Watson (2006), Organising and Managing Work, 2nd edn, Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, p. 369.

    Google Scholar 

  4. McGregor, Douglas (1985 [1960]), The Human Side of Enterprise, New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., p. 4.

    Google Scholar 

  5. See, for example, the ‘core propositions of HRM’, in Paul Thompson and Bill Harley (2008), ‘HRM and the Worker: Labor Process Perspectives’, in The Oxford Handbook of Human Resource Management, ed. by Patrick Wright, John Purcell and Peter Boxall, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 147–165 (p. 2).

    Google Scholar 

  6. See Michel Anteby and Rakesh Khurana (2012), ‘A New Vision’, Harvard Business School, Baker Library, Historical Collections, http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/hawthorne/anewvision.html#e [accessed 12 November 2012].

    Google Scholar 

  7. Frederick Taylor (2005 [1911]), The Principles of Scientific Management, Fairfield, Iowa: 1st World Literary Society.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Chester I. Barnard (1962 [1938]), The Functions of the Executive, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, p. xi.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Barnard, The Functions of the Executive, pp. 60–61. See also Jay Chandran (1999), ‘The Relevance of Chester Barnard for Today’s Manager’, paper presented to the Midwest Academy of Management Conference, http://www.telelavoro.rassegna.it/fad/socorg03/l4/barnard.pdf [accessed 13 November 2012].

    Google Scholar 

  10. Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman (1995 [1982]), In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies, London: HarperCollins Publishers, p. 97.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Michael Beer and Bert A. Spector (1984), ‘Human Resources Management: The Integration of Industrial Relations and Organization Development’, Research in Personnel and Human Resource Management, vol 2, pp. 261–298 (p. 261).

    Google Scholar 

  12. See, for example, William Ouchi (1981), Theory Z: How American Business Can Meet the Japanese Challenge, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, in which Ouchi drew on the experience of Japanese companies to endorse and elaborate the management principles advanced by McGregor and others in the human relations movement. See also Peters and Waterman, In Search of Excellence, pp. 37–39.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Matthew R. Allen and Patrick Wright (2008), ‘Strategic Management and HRM’, in Patrick Wright, John Purcell and Peter Boxall, eds, The Oxford Handbook of Human Resource Management, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 88–107 (pp. 88–92);

    Google Scholar 

  14. Nicky Golding (2010), ‘Strategic Human Resource Management’, in Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Approach, ed. by Julie Beardwell and Ian Claydon, Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, pp. 30–82 (pp. 50–51).

    Google Scholar 

  15. See Carol Axtell Ray (1986), ‘Corporate Culture: The Last Frontier of Control’, Journal of Management Studies, vol 33, no 3, pp. 287–297; and Joanne Martin and Caren Siehl (1983), ‘Organizational Culture and Counterculture’, Organizational Dynamics, Autumn 1983, pp. 52–64 (pp. 52–53).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Steven C. Brandt (1981), Strategic Planning in Emerging Companies, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, p. 71.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Hugh Wilmott (1993), ‘Strength is Ignorance; Slavery is Freedom: Managing Culture in Modern Organizations’, Journal of Management Studies, vol 30, no 4, pp. 515–552 (p. 517). Ironically, the author of this article sat on the Business and Management Panel of the UK’s 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). It is hard to think of an institution within the university sector that has done more to ‘colonise the affective’ in the pursuit of organisational goals than the RAE and its successors!

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Fred Luthans (2002), ‘Positive Organizational Behavior: Developing and Managing Psychological Strengths’, Academy of Management Executive, vol 16, no 1, pp. 57–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Although Gallup is best known for its polling work, 90% of its world-wide business is in management consulting and workplace development. See Fred Luthans (2002), ‘The Need for and Meaning of Positive Organizational Behavior’, Journal of Organizational Behavior, vol 23, no 6, pp. 695–706, p. 696.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Luthans, ‘The Need for and Meaning of Positive Organizational Behavior’, p. 698. In a later article (2009), Luthans retracted this claim, acknowledging the ‘positivity’ of earlier contributions to the OB field, notably those of McGregor and Maslow, and concluding that ‘as a field of inquiry, OB tends to be more positive than negative’ (Fred Luthans and Bruce J. Avolio (2009), ‘The “Point” of Positive Organizational Behavior’, Journal of Organizational Behavior, vol 30, pp. 291–307).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. For comprehensive accounts of the foundation and development of POS, see Positive Organizational Scholarship: Foundations of a New Discipline (2003), ed. by Kim S. Cameron, Jane E. Dutton and Robert E. Quinn, San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  22. and The Oxford Handbook of Positive Organizational Scholarship (2012), ed. by Kim S. Cameron and Gretchen M. Spreitzer, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Luthans, ‘Positive Organizational Behaviour Developing and Managing Psychological Strengths’, p. 59. It should be noted that although Luthans is widely recognised as the pioneering figure in the POB field, not everyone in it assents to the defining criteria he has established. For example, in Thomas A. Wright (2003), ‘Positive Organizational Behavior: An Idea Whose Time Has Truly Come’, Journal of Organizational Behaviour, vol 24, no 4, pp. 437–442, Wright rejected the exclusive focus on ‘performance improvement’ and argued that ‘the mission of POB must include the pursuit of employee happiness, health, and betterment issues as viable goals or ends in themselves’ (p. 441).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. In Debra L. Nelson and Cary L. Cooper (2007), Positive Organizational Behavior, London: Sage Publications, Nelson and Cooper noted that they ‘were struck by the variance in the many perspectives and points of view, and the many agendas within the field’ (p. 4). Certainly, the clear boundaries that Luthans wished to draw between POB, POS and positive psychology were distinctly blurred in this volume — and indeed in the volumes on POS referred to in note 37. However, Luthans remains a dominant figure within POB and I focus on his approach here on account of its clear relationship to the HRM tradition.

    Google Scholar 

  25. For a useful summary of the ‘positivity agenda’, see Stephen Fineman (2006), ‘On Being Positive; Concerns and Counterpoints’, Academy of Management Review, vol 31, no 2, pp. 270–291.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Fred Luthans, Kyle, W. Luthans and Brett C. Luthans (2004), ‘Positive Psychological Capital: Beyond Human and Social Capital’, Business Horizons, vol 47, no 1, pp. 45–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. See J. Richard Hackman (2009), ‘The Point of POB: Rejoinder’, Journal of Organizational Behavior, vol 30, 321–322 (p.322).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Luthans, Luthans and Luthans, ‘Positive Psychological Capital: Beyond Human and Social Capital’; Fred Luthans et al. (2006), ‘Psychological Capital Development: Toward a Micro-Intervention, Journal of Organizational Behavior, pp. 387–393; and Fred Luthans, Carolyn M. Youssef and Bruce J. Avolio (2007), Psychological Capital: Developing the Human Competitive Edge, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Charles, R. Snyder (1994), The Psychology of Hope: You Can Get There from Here, New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Charles R. Snyder, et al. (1991) ‘The Will and the Ways: Development and Validation of an Individual-Differences Measure of Hope’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol 60, no 4, pp. 570–585;

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. and Charles Snyder, et al. (1996) ‘Development and Validation of the State Hope Scale’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol 70, no 2, pp. 321–335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. For a summary account of these measures, see also Luthans, Fred and Susan M. Jensen (2002), ‘Hope: A New Positive Strength for Human Resource Development’, Human Resource Development Review, vol 1, no 3, pp. 304–322 (pp. 307–309).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. For an extensive account of delusional optimism, see John Lanchester (2010), Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay, London: Allen Lane.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Peter Schulman (1999), ‘Applying Learned Optimism to Increase Sales Productivity’, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, vol XIX, no 1, pp. 31–37 (p 34).

    Google Scholar 

  35. Virgil H. Adams III, et al. (2003) ‘Hope in the Workplace’, in Handbook of Workplace Spirituality and Organizational Performance, ed. by Robert A. Giacalone and Carole L. Jurkiewicz, Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., pp. 367–377 (p. 369).

    Google Scholar 

  36. Luthans and Jensen, ‘Hope: A New Positive Strength for Human Resource Development’, p. 313; Carolyn. M. Youssef and Fred Luthans (2007), ‘Positive Organizational Behavior in the Workplace: The Impact of Hope, Optimism and Resilience’, Journal of Management, vol 33, no 5, pp. 774–800 (pp. 792–795).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Luthans, Youssef and Avolio, Psychological Capital: Developing the Human Competitive Edge, p. 68; Fred Luthans, René Van Wyk and Fred O. Walumbwa (2004), ‘Recognition and Development of Hope for South African Organizational Leaders’, The Leadership and Organizational Development Journal, vol 25, no 6, pp. 512–527 (p. 521).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Fred Luthans, et al. (2001), ‘Positive Approach to Leadership (PAL): Implications for Today’s Organizations’, Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, vol 8, no 3, pp. 3–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Suzanne J. Peterson and Fred Luthans (2003), ‘The Positive Impact and Development of Hopeful Leaders’, Leadership and Organizational Development Journal, vol 23, pp. 26–31 (p. 29).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Martha R. Helland and Bruce, E. Winston (2005), ‘Towards a Deeper Understanding of Hope and Leadership’, Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, vol 12, no 2, pp. 42–54 (pp. 42, 45 & 48).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Adaptive Learning Systems (2013), ‘Company Background and Description’, http://www.zoominfo.com/#!search/profile/company?companyId=458775&targetid=profile [accessed 11 January 2013].

    Google Scholar 

  42. Monica Millerrodgers (2010), ‘Comprehensive Soldier Fitness marks change in Army culture’, www.Army.Mil: The Official Home Page of the US Army, http://www.army.mil/article/45723/comprehensive-soldier-fitness-marks-change-in-army-culture/ [accessed 11 January 2013].

    Google Scholar 

  43. Positive Psychology Center (2012), Pennsylvania State University, ‘Positive Psychology Center Annual Report’, http://www.ppc.sas.upenn.edu/ppcannualreport.pdf [accessed 11 January 2013].

    Google Scholar 

  44. Australia Business Training (2013) ‘About Us’, http://www.australianbusinesstraining.com.au/about.html [accessed 14 January 2013].

    Google Scholar 

  45. Business Training Works (2012), ‘Optimism and Positive Attitude Training’, http://www.businesstrainingworks.com/Communication/Optimism-and-Positive-Attitude-Training.html [accessed 1 January 2013].

    Google Scholar 

  46. Thomas A. Wright (2009), ‘The Emerging Positive Agenda in Organizations: Greater than a Trickle, but not yet a Deluge’, Journal of Organizational Behavior, vol 30, pp. 147–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Tom Keenoy (1990), ‘HRM: A Case of the Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?’, Personnel Review, vol 19, no 2, pp. 3–9 (p. 9).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Fineman, ‘On Being Positive’, pp. 280–281. See also Richard S. Lazarus (2003), ‘Does the Positive Psychology Movement Have Legs?’, Psychological Inquiry, vol 14, no 2, pp. 93–109 (p. 106).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. See Seligman’s account of the Metropolitan Life study in ‘Learned Optimism’, pp. 97–106; Linda J. Wunderley, et al. (1998), ‘Optimism and Pessimism in Business Leaders’, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, vol 28, no 9, pp. 751–760; Adams, et al., ‘Hope in the Workplace’; Peterson and Luthans, ‘The Positive Impact and Development of Hopeful Leaders’; Luthans et al., ‘Psychological Capital Development: Toward a Micro-Intervention’; Youssef and Luthans, ‘Positive Organizational Behavior in the Workplace’;

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. Donald Kluemper, Laura M. Little and Timothy DeGroot (2009), ‘State or Trait: Effects of State Optimism on Job-related Outcomes’, Journal of Organizational Behavior, vol 30, pp. 209–231.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. On the impact on organisational performance of HRM in general, see Julie Beardwell and Ian Clark (2010), ‘An Introduction to Human Resource Management’, in Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Approach, ed. by Julie Beardwell and Ian Claydon, 6th edn., Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, pp. 3–29 (pp. 12–16).

    Google Scholar 

  52. Christopher M. Peterson and Martin E. P. Seligman (2003), ‘Positive Organizational Studies: Lessons from Positive Psychology’, in Positive Organizational Scholarship: Foundations of a New Discipline, ed. by Kim S. Cameron, Jane E. Dutton and Robert E. Quinn, San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., pp. 14–127 (p. 17).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Warwick, UK

    Oliver Bennett

Authors
  1. Oliver Bennett
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 2015 Oliver Bennett

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Bennett, O. (2015). Optimism at Work: Human Resource Management. In: Cultures of Optimism. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137484819_4

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation