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Utilizing employee strengths contributes to humanizing organizations. However, the current concept of strengths has evolved from the domain of social work, advanced by personality and positive psychologists and adopted in management. The trait-like conceptualization of strengths conceptualized by psychologists is of lesser relevance to organizations as it discounts the significance of contextual factors for manifesting employee strengths. This study traces the evolution of strengths conceptualization, identifies gaps in its relevance to organizations, employs the concept relation method for developing a conceptualization of employee strengths at work and proposes a framework for management development that predicts improved employee engagement and performance.

The study utilizes the Cochrane method for carrying out a systematic conceptual review and shortlists 19 articles from an initial selection of 430 articles. Drawing insights from the 19 reviewed studies, the study deploys the concept relation method to conceptualize the concept of employees' strengths at work (ESAW) that has a higher relevance for management and organizational behavior. Thereafter, utilizing ESAW, the study proposes a conceptual framework that has huge implications for improving employee engagement and performance by carrying out effective management development. The conceptual framework additionally serves as a springboard for future empirical research.

The conceptualization of human strengths in extant literature favors a trait-based conceptualization advanced by personality psychologists. Concepts borrowed from other domains have lesser relevance than those indigenously developed in the field of management. Incorporating the recent empirical evidence highlighting the importance of factoring in key contextual attributes for the strengths to manifest at work, this study develops a new higher-order construct of ESAW that factors in personal as well as situational variables. Thereafter, the study suggests a conceptual framework for effectively carrying out management development by utilizing the new construct of ESAW.

Deployment of ESAW will contribute to humanize organizations, improve employee engagement and performance. The construct of ESAW is relevant to practice as it has evolved from the domain of organization science, unlike the earlier trait-based conceptualization of strength that emerged in personality psychology. The conceptual framework proposed in the study can be utilized by practitioners for carrying out effective management development.

Any contribution to increasing employee engagement predicts increasing social capital. If employees are happy at work, their productivity increases. Furthermore, higher engagement and productivity at work creates a spiral of positivity that transcends the working life of an employee. Hence, the study has huge social implications at times when the social fabric is stretched due to multiple demands on an employee.

Constructs developed in other fields and adopted in management have less relevance than those evolved indigenously in the domain of management. The systematic conceptual review of the concept of human strengths reveals a gap in its relevance to organizations. The study develops a new concept of ESAW that has higher relevance for organizational behavior and holds the promise of humanizing organizations. The next originality of the study lies in proposing a conceptual framework for carrying out effective management development that predicts higher employee engagement and performance. The methodological originality lies in utilizing the systematic conceptual review for developing a new concept.

With growing stress at work, the need for scholars to focus on humanizing organizations is pressing. Scholars agree five factors lead to humanizing organizations. This study dwells upon one factor – employee strengths at work (ESAW) – problematizes, identifies the gap in its conceptualization, deploys critical social systems theory and reconceptualizes the construct of ESAW by taking key contextual factors into consideration. Thereafter, this study aims to develop a conceptual model and makes propositions related to the mediating effects of ESAW on the association of leadership style and employee performance.

Aimed at contributing to humanizing organizations, this conceptual study problematizes the construct of competency and the trait-based conceptualization of strengths in identifying gaps in the construct of competency for humanizing organizations. Next, the study deploys the technique of construct mixology for evolving the new construct of ESAW. To empirically test ESAW in the field, the authors deploy the critical social systems theory and develop a conceptual model. Further, drawing upon the conceptual model and the extant literature, the authors develop many propositions for enabling future research.

The study develops a new construct of ESAW that holds the promise of contributing to humanizing organizations. By embedding the current trait-based conceptualization of employee strengths to the context of the organization, the new five-factor construct of ESAW is indigenous to the field of organization science, hence, has a higher relevance. The study develops a conceptual model and makes propositions for empirically testing the new construct in the field that future researchers may focus upon.

There is a compelling need for humanizing organizations. This conceptual study attempts to bring back the focus of researchers on humanizing organizations, within the framework of the market-driven economy. The new construct of ESAW has huge potential for theory-building and empirical testing.

Deployment of ESAW will contribute to humanizing organizations. The construct of ESAW is relevant to practice as it has evolved from the domain of organization science, unlike the earlier trait-based conceptualization of strength that emerged in personality psychology. Practitioners can deploy the construct of ESAW and achieve the two seemingly conflicting objectives of enabling employee well-being while also ensuring superior performance.

Any contribution toward humanizing organizations forebodes increasing the social capital and the personal well-being of employees. If employees are happy at work, their productivity increases. As per the broaden and build theory of Fredrickson, higher well-being and productivity at work creates a spiral of positivity that transcends the working life of an employee. Hence, the study has huge social implications at times when the social fabric is stretched because of multiple demands on an employee.

Constructs developed in other fields and adopted in organization science have less relevance than those evolved in the domain of organization science. Past deficient conceptualization and practices persist unless scholars logically challenge it an alternative and improved conceptualization provided. The new construct of ESAW uses the method of construct mixology after unravelling the assumptions that impedes humanizing organizations.

Connectedness is essential for student success in online learning. By projecting themselves as real people through video, instructors support connectedness. In this chapter, researchers apply the theory of social presence (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000) to case studies from two public higher education institutions: a four-year university and a large research university. Analysis identifies video as a humanizing element of online courses. Findings suggest video could be used in a variety of ways (e.g., video lectures, synchronous office hours, weekly overview videos), and no single use of video was perceived to be more or less effective in developing social presence and humanizing the learning experience. However, participants especially perceived connectedness when video was used in a variety of ways. Students from the second case study validated a perception of connectedness to the instructor that faculty in our first case study hoped to achieve. However, one instructor’s perception of disconnect illustrates that video is just one of several pedagogical practices necessary to create a satisfying learning experience for both students and instructors. While video is not the only way to establish social presence, findings suggest video is an effective practice toward creating a humanized and connected online learning community.

There is a compelling need for developing constructs in management science for higher relevance rather than adapting constructs developed in other domains and applying them in organizations. An inquiry in the relevance of the construct of strength developed in personality psychology and applied to organizations is compelling, as deploying strengths leads to humanizing organizations. With growing disengagement of employees at work, this study makes a significant contribution by conceptualizing strengths in the context of organizations and carrying out two studies on independent samples for developing a psychometrically validated 14-item scale for measuring it.

The study has two phases. The first phase is conceptual in nature where the authors deploy the social systems theory and use recent empirical research evidence in conceptualizing the construct of employee strengths at work (ESAW). In the second phase, the author carry out two studies on independent samples for ascertaining the factor structure by carrying out EFA and then confirming it by doing a confirmatory factor analysis.

The construct of ESAW, relevant for management science, has five factors: potential deployment, person-jot fit, managerial sensitivity, prompt assimilation and joy. The psychometrically validated scale for measuring ESAW developed in this study has 14 items. Because the construct incorporates key contextual factors, it is more relevant to organizational science and contributes to humanizing organizations.

This study evolves the construct of ESAW from a predominantly trait-based approach to a conceptualization that accounts for the contextual factors, essential for enabling strengths of employees to manifest. The study contributes to advancing literature that holds promise for humanizing organizations – a pressing need because of the growing instances of employee disengagement. The author develop a 14-item psychometrically validated scale for measuring ESAW that the practitioners can use in first assessing current levels of employee strengths’ deployment and thereafter intervening for increasing the deployment of their strengths for enabling higher well-being and superior performance.

Although the importance of social media in the HRM literature is well established, little is known about their potential role in bringing the “human component” at the center of the organization. The purpose of this chapter is to conceptually investigate if and how the use of social media in HRM can support (or counteract) a more humanistic approach within organizations. To this aim, we looked into how the e-HRM literature on social media could match the principles posed by the Humanistic Management literature. After having delineated Humanistic Management principles, we frame our analysis focusing on four main topics related to HRM: organizational culture, leadership, job design, and HR practices (i.e., recruitment and selection, learning and training, and performance appraisal and compensation). We develop research propositions connecting humanistic principles with these organizational and HR areas, and conclude with research and managerial implications.

The key aim of this narrative literature review, therefore, is to identify the key conceptual categories that inform the construction of positive person-centred culture within hospitals, and how these frameworks are brought to bear upon organisational culture within healthcare systems in Australia.

This narrative review presents a thematic synthesis of literature identified through a systematic search protocol undertaken across 19 academic databases and Google Scholar as an additional search tool. Thematic qualitative analysis was performed on the research results to determine the common themes within the diverse literature presented within this study.

Culture change interventions in hospitals attempt to address the problem of widespread unprofessional behaviour within healthcare systems. However, diverse definitions and seemingly fragmented approaches to understanding and enacting organisational culture change present a significant hurdle in achieving cohesive and sustainable healthcare reform. This narrative literature review offers a comprehensive conceptual view of the key approaches that inform positive person-centred culture within hospital settings. In total, three primary dimensions, belonging, behaving and being, aligned against organisational goals, individual behaviours and worker as well as organisational identity were identified. Other individual and group interactional dynamics that give rise to negative organisational culture are further analysed to understand the fault lines along which existing culture change interventions are typically operationalised.

This review is not exhaustive and is limited in its methodological scope. The central values and themes identified within the literature are integral to designing humanised healthcare systems. However, owing to the qualitative nature and contextual variability of these factors, these themes do not lend themselves to replicable quantification.

This analysis contributes to foundational research efforts towards transforming healthcare practice to be more aligned with humanised and equitable values within increasingly complex healthcare organisational settings. Designing culture change interventions that align more suitably with the values-driven categories identified in this literature review may increase the effectiveness and sustainability of these interventions and reform efforts at organisational and systemic levels.

This article presents a comprehensive framework to approach healthcare organisational reform through shared and equitable models of operation, management and governance rather than continuing to promote narrowly defined outcomes derived from commodified models of healthcare practice.

Rising tuition fees and a growing importance on league tables has meant that university branding is becoming more of a necessity to attract prospective staff, students, and funding. Whilst university websites are an important branding tool, academic institutions are also beginning to exploit social media. Image-based social media services such as Instagram are particularly popular at the moment. It is therefore logical for universities to have a presence on popular image-based social media services such as Instagram. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the online presence of UK universities on Instagram in an initial investigation of use.

This study utilizes webometric data collection, and content analysis methodology.

The results indicate that at the time of data analysis for this investigation (In the Spring of 2015), UK universities had a limited presence on Instagram for general university accounts, with only 51 out of 128 institutions having an account. The most common types of images posted were humanizing (31.0 percent), showcasing (28.8 percent), and orienting (14.3 percent). Orienting images were more likely to receive likes than other image types, and crowdsourcing images were more likely to receive comments.

This paper gives a valuable insight into the image posting practices of UK universities on Instagram. The findings are of value to heads of marketing, online content creators, social media campaign managers, and anyone who is responsible for the marketing, branding, and promoting of a university’s services.

There are vast opportunities for nonprofit organizations (NPOs) globally to find support for international humanitarian causes. However, donors/consumers are not always willing to contribute for such causes. This study aims to investigate how potential donor perceptions are shaped to gain wider support and aims to build a model that could guide managers of NPOs in their communication strategy.

Two scenario-based experiments with the participation of graduate students from an Indian university were conducted.

Cosmopolitan people have the higher moral judgment of the international causes championed by NPOs. However, anthropomorphizing the NPO’s message elevates the moral judgments among non-cosmopolitans. Process tests indicate that these moral judgments indirectly impact donation intentions for these causes.

The paper only investigates donation intention for poverty and not humanitarian causes such as access to drinking water. Moreover, the campaign chosen takes place only in Africa (e.g. not in Asia or Latin America).

NPOs could tailor their marketing messages for international humanitarian causes by targeting cosmopolitan donors/consumers and using humanization as the branding strategy.

This research contributes to theory by showing how consumers who would otherwise not contribute to an out-group could be influenced positively by the NPOs’ branding strategy.

This study aims to identify the present development of workplace spirituality (WPS) by synthesizing the findings from the WPS literature, identifying gaps and proposing a research agenda.

This study reviews 72 articles on WPS published in scholarly journals to review their findings on how it has developed over time.

This review reveals a dearth of qualitative studies like the phenomenological approach, ethnographic research, mixed methodology and experimental research. Besides, the findings reveal various dimensions of spirituality in regard to the workplace. The synthesis reveals a paucity of research to examine WPS at the level of mesospiritual. The findings reveal the scope for cross-cultural studies in WPS that could support and advance inclusion and diversity in the organization. Also, there is scope to examine the relationship of WPS with mental and behavioral health, mindset, innovative behavior, sustainable behavior and trust. Further, the findings reveal the scope of studying the darker side of spirituality in the workplace.

This study offers significant implications to researchers, management and human resource management (HRM) practitioners by providing a holistic understanding of WPS. The literature review findings are limited to the analysis performed on seventy-two papers from Web of Science (WoS) and Google Scholar databases.

This study provides suggestions and future research directions for researchers, HRM and management practitioners for the inclusion of spirituality. The review findings suggest the implications for management and HRM practitioners by understanding the research done in cognitive science and neuroscience related to spirituality to humanize the workplace. HRM practitioners can draw on the insights offered in this analysis to develop learning and development interventions in support of WPS, e.g. training programs for cultivating mindset through spiritual mentoring.

The study provides WPS development over time. It also provides a comprehensive outlook on WPS that highlights its positive and negative sides. The study contributes to the literature by categorizing the literature and proposing a research agenda to guide future WPS research.

Deviant consumer behavior (DCB) has serious negative effects on organizations, employees and other customers. While research to date has largely focused on understanding why consumers engage in deviant behaviors, less focus has been placed on exploring how to deter them. This paper aims to shift the conversation from research exploring why consumers engage in deviant behaviors to understanding how DCB could be deterred.

In this conceptual paper, a research agenda of deterrence tactics is provided with associated propositions to guide future research in the field of DCB.

A deterrence–neutralization–behavior (DNB) framework is proposed to underpin the seven deterrence tactics outlined in this research agenda. The DNB framework illustrates the positive relationship between neutralization techniques and engagement in DCB, because the techniques reduce the level of cognitive dissonance associated with performing a deviant act beyond an individual’s deviance threshold. The framework adds a new proposed moderating role of deterrence tactics. Deterrence tactics are mechanisms that will reintroduce cognitive dissonance, previously reduced through a neutralization technique, by presenting the consumer with a competing piece of information that challenges their attitudes, beliefs or behavior. Therefore, the authors propose that certain deterrence tactics could diminish the positive effect of different neutralization techniques on DCB if the tactics challenge the justifications consumers are using to excuse their actions – subsequently reintroducing cognitive dissonance.

Practically, this paper is the next step in an effort to provide evidence-based solutions for managers seeking to reduce the negative impact that deviance has on the organization.

To date, research has focused on understanding why DCB occurs with limited attention on how it can be deterred. The value in this paper is in proposing a series of deterrence tactics that are theoretically matched to established antecedents and neutralization techniques associated with DCB. Overall, this paper provides a future research agenda with propositions to build knowledge on effective deterrence tactics for curbing instances of DCB.