PSY 680A1 - Positive Organizations and Leadership

What contributes to individual and collective flourishing and thriving in organizations? How can organizations and their leaders enable positive emotions, positive meaning, positive relationships, and positive cultures and climates?

Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) brings together the research, theory, and practice of cultivating human thriving in organizations from the domains of positive psychology, industrial and organizational psychology, organizational behavior, and management scholarship.

The emphasis of this course is on understanding the individual attributes for flourishing in work, enabling positive groups and teams, and designing positive leadership and organizational approaches. Topics such as positive emotions in organizations, strengths in work, work engagement, meaningful work, psychological safety, high-quality connections, and positive leadership and change approaches will be explored.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Define key concepts and methods in positive organizational scholarship and leadership.
• Apply empirical research linking positive organizational scholarship and leadership to individual-, group-, and organizational-level outcomes.
• Describe flourishing systems, and articulate pathways and strategies through which positive collectives (organizations, teams, or units) can thrive.
• Articulate a range of strategies through which leaders can facilitate positive organizational change.
• Identify best practices for leading a purposeful workplace.