03 Oct Strengthening Psychological Capital (PsyCap)
The 4 Positive psychological resources
An organization is a dynamic social system driven by certain factors within and outside its environment. Understanding the behaviour of people in organizations is the top concern of all managers and leaders. Organizational behaviour is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness
Within behavioural sciences there has been an increasing interest on the value and significance of physical and mental health and positive emotions at workplace for individual and organizational performance. And the field of positive organizational behaviour (POB) has emerged from the recently proposed positive psychology approach.
POB focuses on evaluating the individual behaviours and attitudes through a positive point of view. The purpose of positive psychology “is to begin to catalyse a change in the focus of psychology from pre-occupation only with repairing the worst things in life to also building positive qualities”. POB has been among the most important issues of postmodern organizations, which is suggested to be north worthy to study for enhancing better work conditions and quality of work life.
Informed by the ideas of positive psychology, Luthans and Youssef (2004) introduced the concept of Psychological Capital (PsyCap) within the emerging positive organizational behaviour movement. This is an area of inquiry that has proven to be unique to both the positive psychology and positive organizational behaviour literature.
PsyCap is described as an individual’s positive psychological state of development. Luthans and Youssef (2004) introduced the higher-order construct of PsyCap to capture one’s positively oriented human resource strengths and psychological capacities. PsyCap comprises four positive psychological resources and is characterized by:
Having the willpower and pathways to attain one’s goals
Believing in one’s ability to mobilize cognitive resources to obtain specific outcomes
Having the capacity to bounce back from adversity, failure or even seeming overwhelming positive changes
Having the explanatory style that attributes positive events to internal, permanent and pervasive causes
Psychological capital has the potential to be developed through training and intentional practice. Researches examining whether PsyCap can be developed through training interventions provides support for conceptualizing PsyCap as a developmental state. Thus the components of PsyCap are open to development and management.
As part of the skill-UP consortium, Kastamonu University is currently designed a transversal training module about Strengthening Psychological Capital (PsyCap) for ATCOs, Pilots, RPAS pilots and airport operators. In the context of the course, firstly a deep understanding will be gained on positive organizational behaviour, PsyCap and its dimensions, and the role of leadership at PsyCap. Then, positive and negative predictors of PsyCap will be learned. Finally, self-assessment of PsyCap will be evaluated and effects of PsyCap will be discussed. The course aims to support the reskilling and upskilling process of trainees, focusing on psychological capital and the competence of self-management and continuous development
References
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