Thoughtful, Committed Scholars Changing the World

POS researchers share a profound passion—a calling, a responsibility, a drive—for revealing and providing pathways to deep, positive change in organizations, thereby engendering positive transformation in the world. This is perhaps the most resonant take away from the June 2013 POS research conference, and a testament to the excitement and energy generated by being involved in this work. “A Positive Thread: Connecting the Dots” gathered 80 academic researchers in Ann Arbor to learn about each other’s research, discuss possible collaborations, and strengthen the network of scholars working on POS topics, and was the sixth POS research conference we have hosted since 2001, when the field of positive organizational scholarship was first formed. It built on the solid foundation and broad landscape outlined in the landmark 2011 Oxford Handbook of Positive Organizational Scholarship, which explored the many different facets of POS research, and addressed these questions: How can the many disparate research topics included in the Handbook of POS speak to one another? How might we “connect the dots” between scholars, research topics, and methodologies to generate integrative research questions? Attendees met for discussions, grouped first by area of research interest, and then by research methods, to allow for a variety of connections. A number of attendees shared posters of their work. Attendees also broke into groups for “visioning” sessions: What will the field of POS look like going forward? Each group envisioned a future magazine cover story; headlines included, “The Engaged World,” ‘The POS Spring,” and “POS Brings Elixir of Life to Business and Research.” We will share more outcomes of the 2013 conference in the near future. In the meantime, 25-minute videos of the keynote addresses by the authors of the two papers which shared the 2012 Award for Best Paper in POS provide a great glimpse of POS research, and the 2013 conference.