can positive employees help positive organizational change.pdf

University of Nebraska - Lincoln

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Management Department Faculty Publications

Management Department

3-1-2008

Can Positive Employees Help Positive

Organizational Change? Impact of Psychological

Capital and Emotions on Relevant Atitudes and

Behaviors

James Avey

Central Washington University , aveyj@cwu.edu

Tara S. Wernsing

University of Nebraska - Lincoln , Tara.Wernsing@ie.edu

Fred Luthans

University of Nebraska - Lincoln , luthans1@unl.edu

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Avey, James; Wernsing, Tara S.; and Luthans, Fred, "Can Positive Employees Help Positive Organizational Change? Impact of

Psychological Capital and Emotions on Relevant Atitudes and Behaviors" (2008). Management Department Faculty Publications. Paper

32.

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Published in The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 44:1 (March 2008), pp. 48–70;

tions. Used by permission. http://jab.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/44/1/48

Can Positive Employees Help

Positive Organizational Change?

Impact of Psychological Capital and Emotions on

Relevant Attitudes and Behaviors

James B. Avey

Central Washington University

Tara S. Wernsing

Fred Luthans

University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Abstract:

Although much attention has been devoted to understanding employee resis-

tance to change, relatively little research examines the impact that positive em-

ployees can have on organizational change. To help ill this need, the authors

investigate whether a process of employees’ positivity will have an impact on rel-

evant attitudes and behaviors. Speciically, this study surveyed 132 employees

from a broad cross-section of organizations and jobs and found: (a) Their psycho-

logical capital (a core factor consisting of hope, eficacy, optimism, and resilience)

was related to their positive emotions that in turn were related to their attitudes

(engagement and cynicism) and behaviors (organizational citizenship and devi-

ance) relevant to organizational change; (b) mindfulness (i.e., heightened aware-

ness) interacted with psychological capital in predicting positive emotions; and

capital and the attitudes and behaviors. The implications these indings have for

positive organizational change conclude the article.

Keywords: psychological capital, positive emotions, mindfulness, cognitive me-

diation theory, positive organizational change

B oth scholars and practitioners would agree that employee resistance to

change is a primary obstacle for effective organizational change processes

and programs (Armenakis & Bedeian, 1999; O’Toole, 1995; Strebel, 1996),

C a n P o s i t i v e e m P l o y e e s H e l P P o s i t i v e o r g a n i z a t i o n a l C H a n g e ?

whether incremental or discontinuous change (Tushman & O’Reilly, 1996). In

particular, resistance manifested through employee dysfunctional attitudes

(e.g., disengagement or cynicism) and behaviors (e.g., deviance) can be devas-

tating to effective organizational change (Abrahamson, 2000; Reichers, Wanous,

& Austin, 1997; Stanley, Meyer, & Topolntsky, 2005). While much attention has

been given to such perspectives and how to overcome resistance to change, the

role that positive employees may play in positive organizational change has

been largely ignored. Although the importance of positive constructs has been

recognized from the beginning of organizational behavior research and the

study of organization development and change (e.g., the happy worker pro-

ductive worker thesis; for the history of positivity in the workplace see Quick

& Quick, 2004; Wright & Cropanzano, 2004), only recently has a positive ap-

proach received focused research attention as is found in this special issue of

The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science .

Although there are numerous conceptions and deinitions, the perspec-

tive taken by this study is that organizational change initiates from a mis-

match with the environment (Porras & Silvers, 1994) and is motivated by

gaps between the organization’s goals and current results. This organization

change is both critical for managers in terms of effective implementation and

for employees in terms of acceptance and engagement. More than a decade

ago, Strebel (1996) argued that vision and leadership drive successful orga-

nizational change but that few leaders recognize the importance of the em-

ployees’ commitment to changing. Employees within the organizational sys-

tem are responsible for adapting and behaving in ways aligned with change

strategies and programs initiated by management, often with fewer resources

than before (Mishra, Spreitzer, & Mishra, 1998). With the change, they must

learn to forge new paths and strategies to attain redeined goals. They must

have the conidence (eficacy) to adapt to organizational change as well as

the resilience to bounce back from setbacks that are bound to occur during

the change process. Moreover, it follows that to be successful, employees un-

dergoing change would need to have the motivation and alternate pathways

determined (i.e., hope) when obstacles are encountered and make optimistic

attributions of when things go wrong and have a positive outlook for the fu-

ture. Gittell, Cameron, Lim, and Rivas (2006) explain that positive relation-

ships can be one source for developing some of these ways, such as resilience

when faced with change, and we add to this research by highlighting the pos-

itive processes that may be available to support employees who are facing or-

ganizational change.

Based on positive psychology (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), we pro-

pose the newly emerging ields of positive organizational scholarship (Cam-

eron & Caza, 2004; Cameron, Dutton, & Quinn, 2003; Roberts, 2006) and pos-

itive organizational behavior (Luthans, 2002a, 2002b; Nelson & Cooper, 2007;

Wright, 2003) may offer insights into effective organizational change. In partic-

ular, this study investigates whether employees’ psychological resources, such

as hope, optimism, eficacy, and resilience (i.e., what has been termed their pos-

itive psychological capital, PsyCap for short; see Luthans, Avolio, Avey, & Nor-

a v e y , W e r n s i n g , & l u t H a n s i n J . o f A p p l i e d B e h A v i o r A l S c i e n c e 44 (2008)

man, 2007; Luthans & Youssef, 2004; Luthans, Youssef, & Avolio, 2007), and

positive emotions (e.g., see Fredrickson, 1998; Lord, Klimoski, & Kanfer, 2002;

Staw, Sutton, & Pelled, 1994) are examples of positive individual-level factors

that may facilitate organizational change. In other words, positive employees,

deined here as those with positive psychological capital and positive emotions,

may exhibit attitudes and behaviors that in turn may lead to more effective and

positive organizational change.

For this study, positive organizational change is any change that does more

good than harm in and for an organization, considering aspects of employees’

psychological resources, behavior, and performance that may be affected by the

change. An important consideration in positive change is the corresponding ef-

fects on employees as well as organizational outcomes. For example, downsiz-

ing is a change intended to be positive by increasing organizational eficiency

but often fails to be positive because of its disastrous effects on employees (Cas-

cio, 2002). It follows from this perspective that one of the most important as-

pects of positive organizational change is how the employees respond in terms

of their attitudes and behaviors.

To explicate the relationship between positive employees and their attitudes

and behaviors that have implications for positive organizational change, we can

draw from a stream of research in positive psychology. Speciically, Fredrick-

son’s (1998, 2001, 2003b) broaden and build theory examining the role that posi-

tive emotions play in generating broader ways of thinking and behaving seems

especially relevant to explaining the role that positive employees can play in pos-

itive organizational change. Research on positive emotions shows that a ratio of

about 3:1 positive to negative emotions leads to lourishing (i.e., high levels of

functioning and wellbeing; Keyes, 2002) due to increased “momentary thought-

action repertoires” (Fredrickson, 2001, p. 219) that come from experiencing posi-

tive emotions (Fredrickson & Losada, 2005). Additional empirical evidence dem-

onstrates that positive emotions can engender better decision making (Chuang,

2007) and are positively related to various measures of success and well-being

(Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005). In other words, positive emotions may

help employees cope with organizational change by broadening the options they

perceive, maintaining an open approach to problem solving, and supplying en-

ergy for adjusting their behaviors to new work conditions (Baumeister, Gailliot,

DeWall, & Oaten, 2006).

For this study, the proposed process and empirical relationship between

positive employees and positive organizational change is as follows: Employ-

ees’ positive PsyCap, through positive emotions, relates to their relevant at-

titudes and behaviors that can facilitate (or inhibit) positive organizational

change. More speciically, cynical attitudes and deviant behaviors may inhibit

positive change, but their attitudes of engagement and organizational citizen-

ship behaviors may enhance positive organizational change. We now turn to

the background leading up to the speciic study hypotheses for this proposed

process shown in Figure 1.

C a n P o s i t i v e e m P l o y e e s H e l P P o s i t i v e o r g a n i z a t i o n a l C H a n g e ?

Figure 1: Model for Impact of Psychological Capital (PsyCap), Mindfulness, and Positive

Emotions on Attitudes and Behaviors Relevant to Positive Organizational Change

The Role of Emotions, Attitudes, and Behaviors in Organizational Change

In this study we investigate the impact that positive employees, represented

by their levels of psychological capital (covered next) and positive emotions,

and their relevant attitudes and behaviors may have on positive organizational

change. Based on Fredrickson’s (1998, 2001, 2003b) work, we propose positive

emotions will result in higher levels of engagement attitudes and organiza-

tional citizenship behaviors that would facilitate positive change. By the same

token, those employees who are low in PsyCap will experience lower levels of

positive emotions and in turn are more likely to experience cynical attitudes

and deviant behaviors that would be indicative of resistance to change and de-

tract from positive organizational change.

Relevant prior research by Staw and colleagues (Staw & Barsade, 1993;

Staw et al., 1994; Wright & Staw, 1999) has found that employees who report

more frequent levels of positive emotions tended to be more socially inte-

grated in the organization, thus likely leading to higher engagement and cit-

izenship than those who reported fewer positive emotions. In terms of work

attitudes, Fredrickson’s (2001) broaden and build theory of positive emotions

predicts that positive emotions “broaden people’s momentary thought-ac-

tion repertoires, widening the array of the thoughts and actions that come

to mind” (p. 220). She further notes “the personal resources accrued during

states of positive emotions are conceptualized as durable” (p. 220). It would

follow that these psychological resources generated by employees experienc-

ing positive emotions may lead to employee attitudes such as emotional en-

gagement. This employee engagement would not only affect individual em-

ployees but may also impact other team members’ motivation and emotions,

which in turn can be a positive inluence on organizational change (Bakker,

van Emmerik, & Euwema, 2006).

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