Featured
Center for POS Welcomes Managing Director Chris White
Center for POS faculty director Bob Quinn has announced the March 1st appointment of Chris White, Michigan Ross MBA 2011, as the first managing director of the Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS). As the Center for POS celebrates its 10th year, Chris will take the lead in setting a strategy to expand the reach of the Center and its research to individuals and organizations worldwide. In particular, he will lead the Positive Business Initiative made possible by a generous gift from Terence E. Adderley, Michigan Ross BBA 1955/MBA 1956.POS Research with Impact
In Pursuit of a Career with a Heart... How Can People Negotiate That?
By Shirli Kopelman, University of Michigan
The negotiated journey toward a career with a heart is important to understand, because having such a career can yield not only long-term love for what one does, but a host of beneficial outcomes for individuals and organizations.
Having a career with a heart means experiencing more than mere job satisfaction; indeed it means feeling enduring love and passion for one’s work. This pursuit is possible in any profession and occupation at every point along the career path.
The Deep Change Field Guide: An Interactive Self-Teaching Course
By Robert Quinn, University of Michigan
In positive organizational scholarship ,we often speak of flourishing organizations. For a normal organization to become a flourishing organization it has to change. The norms, values, and beliefs of the people have to be transformed. This is the work of leadership: Someone exerts the capacity to move the organization to a more positive trajectory.
Positive Organizational Scholarship and Social Change
Karen Golden-Biddle, Boston University, & Jane Dutton, University of Michigan
How does Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) enrich and enliven how we think about and understand social change?
We invited 37 authors to engage this question in a new book called Using a Positive Lens to Explore Social Change and Organizations (Routledge, 2012). The book unleashes new insights about how social change happens, showcasing in particular a richer portrait of the human processes and structures that facilitate and are created in social change, and a fuller spectrum of impacts arising from social change. The book zooms in on three social change domains—Environment and Sustainability, Health Care, and Poverty, and Low-Wage Work—where a positive lens is particularly useful for uncovering insights for theory and for practice. The book also has a special section dedicated to the topic of individual and collective change agents. Three core insights (among many) shine brightly from applying a positive perspective to social change and organizations:
POS Teaching with Impact
The Unbearable Lightness of Meetings
By Adam M. Grant, University of Pennsylvania
If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."
—Dave Barry
In the summer of 2011, two managers in the financial sector reduced the time they wasted in meetings by 20%. “It freed up an entire day per week,” exclaimed Mario, and “I’m able to focus in on strategy and efficiencies,” said Jeanne. What did it take for both of these managers to free up so much time?
Being The Best Leader You Can Be
By Graham Louden-Carter
I use the Reflected Best Self Exercise™ (RBSE™) to help me challenge people to ask themselves, "How can I be the best leader I can be?"
Center for POS News & Activities
Special issue of Organizational Dynamics on Positive Organizing
By Kim Cameron & Gretchen Spreitzer, University of Michigan
In April 2012, the journal Organizational Dynamics will highlight a special issue on “Applying a POS Lens to Bring out the Best in Organizations.” The purpose of the special issue is to make a compelling case for why organizations should care about POS, especially amidst trying times. Following the successful publication of the Oxford Handbook of Positive Organizational Scholarship in 2012 for academic audiences, the special issue makes a turn toward the world of practice. We wanted executives, managers, and employees to see the value of POS for everyday work life. Each of these articles provides a window into how POS practices can be a generative force for organizations, whether in the world of business or beyond.
Guidelines for 2012 Award for Best Paper in POS Announced
By Janet Max
The Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) is pleased to announce the 2012 Award for Best Paper in POS. The purpose of the award is to recognize outstanding scholarship in POS and to encourage research in this growing field. The Award for Best Paper in POS was established in 2008, and is awarded biannually. The deadline for submissions for the 2012 Award is September 1, 2012. More information about the Award for Best Paper in POS, past recipients, and guidelines for the 2012 Award is available on the Award for Best Paper in POS page of the Center for POS website.
