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In this chapter, we assume the following: (1) the root cause of most organizational problems is culture and leadership, (2) executives seldom want to deal with these root causes, (3) because life is uncertain, organizational change is an emergent process, (4) most change processes unfold by reconstructing social reality, (5) the change process is inherently relational, (6) effective change efforts are enhanced by increasing the virtue of the actors, (7) change is embedded in the learning that flows from high-quality relationships, and (8) change agents may have to transcend conventional, economic exchange norms in order to demonstrate integrity and to build trust and openness. Drawing on the field of positive organizational scholarship, we focus on the change agent. We review the literature on self-change and offer several paths for becoming a positive leader.

The emerging fields of positive psychology and positive organizational scholarship (POS) contribute new perspectives and approaches for leadership education and leadership development in higher education. While there are emerging empirical studies in these new fields, little connection has been made to the intellectual and practical applications for undergraduate leadership education. In this paper, the authors make a case for the intersection of leadership and positive organizational scholarship in the context of an academic course that combines theory-to-practice using a project-based learning approach. Student learning gains in this course are reported through a pre-post assessment of student’s competency and personal levels of well-being.

The three concepts that denote the focus of POS were deliberately selected and are important in elucidating the uniqueness of POS as a field of study. The “O” (organizational) and the “S” (scholarship) are relatively noncontroversial concepts. The “P” (positive), however, is more contentious and requires more explanation.

Recent emphasis in research and theory building on compassion in organizations has not yet received sustained attention by organization development and change scholarship. Compassion at work, however, has been reported as instrumental in coaching, ad hoc organizing, prosocial behavior during challenging times, and other processes central to developing and changing organizations. It also has been theorized to bring about an untapped organizational capability, contribute to fostering a climate of workplace forgiveness, and to facilitate development of social entrepreneurship. In this essay, we begin to outline what the recent advances in the compassion literature offer researchers and practitioners of organization development and change. We briefly review how compassion is defined across different contexts, how it can be seen through a positive lens and within broader lines of inquiry on social and emotional dynamics at work, and how interpretive approaches to studying compassion might fit with the study of change. Seeing compassion scholarship as more than a specialized trend in positive organizational behavior, we offer ample opportunities for diverse and novel inquiry into development and change at work.

During the past decade, the winds and raucous waves of positive psychology have altered the landscape and brought new life to the profession and discipline of psychology. Since Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) proffered the positive psychology manifesto at the turn of the century, an amazing plethora of books, articles, research investigations, grants, awards, and applications for improving human welfare and society at large have emerged (see Donaldson, 2011a). Sheldon, Kashdan, and Steger (2011) fully described this impressive groundswell of positive psychology activity in their recent edited volume on Designing positive psychology: Taking stock and moving forward. This rapid growth of scholarly activity has also spawned new professional societies such as the International Association of Positive Psychology (http://www.ippanetwork.org/Home/), scholarly journals including the Journal of Positive Psychology (http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/17439760.asp) and Journal of Happiness Studies (http://www.springer.com/social+sciences/well-being/journal/10902), and top tier graduate programs such as the Masters of Applied Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and the MA and PhD programs in Positive Organizational Psychology and Positive Developmental Psychology at Claremont Graduate University. All of these efforts share the desire to better organize and foster the continued growth and impact of positive psychology.

It’s been thirty years since the original articulation of “Appreciative Inquiry in Organizational Life” was written in collaboration with my remarkable mentor Suresh Srivastva (Cooperrider & Srivastva, 1987). That article – first published in Research in Organization Development and Change – generated more experimentation in the field, more academic excitement, and more innovation than anything we had ever written. As the passage of time has enabled me to look more closely at what was written, I feel both a deep satisfaction with the seed vision and scholarly logic offered for Appreciative Inquiry, as well as well as the enormous impact and continuing reverberation. Following the tradition of authors such as Carl Rogers who have re-issued their favorite works but have also added brief reflections on key points of emphasis, clarification, or editorial commentary I am presenting the article by David Cooperrider (myself) and the late Suresh Srivastva in its entirety, but also with new horizon insights. In particular I write with excitement and anticipation of a new OD – what my colleagues and I are calling the next “IPOD” that is, innovation-inspired positive OD that brings AI’s gift of new eyes together in common cause with several other movements in the human sciences: the strengths revolution in management; the positive pscyhology and positive organizational scholarship movements; the design thinking explosion; and the biomimicry field which is all about an appreciative eye toward billions of years of nature’s wisdom and innovation inspired by life.

This article presents a conceptual refigurationy of action-research based on a “sociorationalist” view of science. The position that is developed can be summarized as follows: For action-research to reach its potential as a vehicle for social innovation it needs to begin advancing theoretical knowledge of consequence; that good theory may be one of the best means human beings have for affecting change in a postindustrial world; that the discipline’s steadfast commitment to a problem solving view of the world acts as a primary constraint on its imagination and contribution to knowledge; that appreciative inquiry represents a viable complement to conventional forms of action-research; and finally, that through our assumptions and choice of method we largely create the world we later discover.

The purpose of this paper is to review premises of positive organizational scholarship.

The paper looks at positive organizational scholarship and presents design experiments to test positive practices.

The paper finds that, in theory, it is possible to improve the atmosphere in a workplace.

The paper highlights the need to be aware of how easy it is to “tip” the atmosphere of an organization from positive to negative, and vice versa.

The paper provides useful information on positive organizational scholarship.

As the pendulum swings back towards growth in business, organisational change is again on the top of the corporate agenda. Change management in recent years has not had a very successful record, and organisations must improve their change capabilities – they must better learn the dance of change. The success of change initiatives more than ever depends on the people in organisations. This article presents a people‐oriented approach to change by integrating the latest developments in “inside‐out” positive organisational scholarship with “outside‐in” thinking of future issues. The methodology facilitates better organisational learning as well as boosting people's commitment to change, and is a practical, simple and effective way of structuring and facilitating large‐scale, complex organisational change initiatives.

In view of the emphasis in cross-cultural research on negative factors such as cultural misfit, cultural distance, and the liability of foreignness, the purpose of this paper is to offer one explanation for why this is the case and highlight the advantages of giving at least equal emphasis to research on positive factors. Three propositions are offered to guide future cross-cultural research.

Summaries of empirical studies on the inherent inclinations of human systems toward the negative, as well as inclinations toward the positive, produce explanations for each of these biases and their implications for cross-cultural scholarship.

By prioritizing positive factors instead of negative factors, individuals and organizations perform at much higher levels than when the reverse is the case. Virtuous practices, in particular, are associated with positively deviant performance. Inasmuch as virtuousness is universally valued, its emphasis can address some of the liabilities of difference inherent in cross-cultural contexts.

The three propositions offered in the paper explain why negative biases exist, how positive biases provide an advantage to individuals and organizations, and highlight future directions for cross-cultural research. Social scientists have been challenged to help enable 51 percent of the world’s population to flourish by mid-century, and prioritizing positive cross-cultural phenomena is one prescription for achieving that objective.

This paper aims to explore the relationships among perceived organizational support, positive relationships at work and intent to turnover through a social exchange theory lens. The main contribution of this paper is the investigation of different types of positive workplace relationships on employee withdrawal behaviors.

A 49-item survey was developed through a review of literature related to positive workplace relationships and intent to turnover. Surveys were made available to 200 healthcare employees; 73 surveys were accurately completed and used to test a mediated model of positive relationships at work.

Positive relationships at work were found to have a mediating effect between perceived organizational support and intent to turnover. Additionally, perceived organizational support was found to have direct and indirect effects on intent to turnover.

Managers can affect employees’ intentions to turnover by improving practices that provide support to employees and encouraging positive relationships with coworkers. Additional literature related to our variables of interest suggests that employees perceive more support when their organizations offer commensurate rewards, opportunities for growth and participation in decision making.

This study speaks to those researchers and managers interested in employees’ motivations for staying in or leaving from their organizations. Turnover and related withdrawal behaviors are expensive for organizations, so discovering the factors that members value offers organizations the ability to affect their members’ intentions to turnover. Additionally, the exploration of relationships between perceived organizational support and positive relationships at work suggests that different support mechanisms play different roles in affecting organizational and individual outcomes.