Kim Cameron: Positive Organizational Scholarship

Positive Psychology is an important component of modern workplace thinking. And Kim Cameron has been at the forefront of making it into a powerful force in organizational thinking, referring to it in this context as ‘Positive Organizational Scholarship’.
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THE NATURE OF ORGANIZATIONS
This video is part of course module number 6.1.5
Program 6: Managing within Organizations
Course 1: The Nature of Organizations
Section 5: Masters of Organizations
Other videos in this section include:
🎬 Max Weber: The Father of Organizational Theory • Max Weber: The Father ...
🎬 Chester Barnard: Organizations as Networks of People • Chester Barnard: Organ...
🎬 Harold Geneen: Data-driven Charismatic Organization • Harold Geneen: Data-dr...
🎬 Edgar Schein: The Master of Organizational Culture • Edgar Schein: The Mast...
🎬 Charles Handy: Philosopher of Organizations • Charles Handy: Philoso...
LESSON NOTES
Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) is the study of what makes members of an organization perform at their best levels, by focusing on what they do well.
Positive Organizational Scholarship brings together many strands of research and thinking:
• Organizational Design (OD)
• Leadership
• Positive Psychology
• Strengths
• Resilience
• Optimism and hope
• Creativity
• Positive Deviance
• Appreciative Inquiry (AI)
• Citizenship behaviors and community psychology
• Ethics and prosocial behavior
Together, these topics address ways to harness and develop human strengths in an organizational setting.
Positive Deviance
The norm represents the organization’s ‘average’ performance. Negative deviance is underperformance or damaging behavior. Positive deviance is better than average performance. The unintended consequence of eliminating deviance is to suppress positive deviance. Flourishing organizations look for positive deviance, to encourage them and find ways to embed the practices into a new, better norm.
Strengths
When we apply our strengths, we maximize satisfaction. Learning new skills that play to our strengths builds talents. So, we feel a drive to practice and develop them further. The Talent Equation:
Strength + Skill = Talent
Virtuous Practices
In flourishing organizations, leaders try to make virtuous choices. These are options they hope will benefit people. The culture needs to make this possible and encourage it. Systematic virtuousness results in happy workers who don’t fear mindless rules and feel gratitude.
Affirmative Bias
You hear comments that both affirm or deny other people’s points of view, ideas, and contributions. If we bias our comments towards the positive end of the spectrum, it can create positive emotional states in people, which helps the organization flourish. Research suffers from small sample sizes and lack of replication. But, a 2004 paper by Marcial Losada and Emily Heaphy found that a 5:1 ratio of positive to negative comments can transform the feel of an organization’s culture.
Positive Energy Networks
Some people show positive deviance, virtuous practices, and affirmative bias. When these people reinforce one another, they become a Positive Energy Network. They set high goals (Cameron calls them ‘Everest Goals’) and communicate supportively to form high-quality workplace relationships. People take on tasks and work harder, just to become and stay part of a Positive Energy Network.
RECOMMENDED EXERCISE
Which ideas from Positive Organizational Scholarship could you introduce to your own part of your organization? Plan how you can do it, and make a start (4 MC CPD Points)
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RECOMMENDED READING
from Kim Cameron
Positive Organizational Scholarship geni.us/MyFVxAC
The Oxford Handbook of Positive Organizational Scholarship geni.us/rtQL
Positive Leadership: Strategies for Extraordinary Performance geni.us/AFE5T2
Practicing Positive Leadership: Tools and Techniques That Create Extraordinary Results geni.us/RdHxYve
Managers Need a Basic kit to do your job well. Here are my top recommendations: kit.co/MikeClayton/manager-s-... (the links are affiliated)
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#OrganizationalCulture #ManagementCourses #KimCameron

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A lot of early Positive Psychology thinking stems from a mega-project - the clean-up of the Rocky Flats nuclear site. ANd Kim Cameron documented it in his book, Making the Impossible Possible: geni.us/wUYUTC

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Thank you for watching - please do subscribe to the channel and, to join my community, sign-up at onlinepmcourses.com/assets440251/the-onlinepmcourses-newsletter/

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Very well explained, Sir! Very informational. Thank you!

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Glad it was helpful!