The Study of the Processes and Conditions by Positive Psychology - Report Example

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY Student’s Name: Code + Course name Professor’s name University City, State Date Introduction The Reflected Best Self-Exercise and the values obtained from the action survey played a pivotal role in enhancing individual mindfulness and self-reflection. The RBS test was a useful tool since it enabled me to understand my strengths and virtues associated with leadership. The first section of the report provides a literature review regarding positive psychology and its contribution to leadership capabilities in an organisation. In order to obtain feedback about my strengths and virtues, I sent emails to thirteen respondents that included ten colleagues, two workmates and one sibling requesting them to provide their opinions regarding the areas that I perform best. The ability to provide emotional and technical support to individuals turned out to be the common feedback among all the members. The feedback also identified situational and personal barriers that have prevented me from performing as expected. The vision statement is the last item in the report. It provides the instances of the best performance based on the feedback obtained from the respondents. Literature Review Positive psychology refers to the study of the processes and conditions that enable the optimal functioning and flourishing of individuals, institutions and groups (Gable & Haidt 2005). It is evident that the science of psychology has played a significant role towards enabling us to understand what goes wrong in individuals, institutions, groups and families (Ryff 2003; Linley & Joseph 2004). Apparently, the application of positive psychology in the workplace impacts positively to the organisation since it ascertains that the workers deliver the anticipated results. The effectiveness of transformational leadership suffices to be the manifestation of positive psychology at the workplace. In most instances, it is proper to associate positive psychology with the well-being of an individual. The wellbeing of a person extends beyond the mere fact that the individual does not exhibit any physical ill health. It includes the ability of the individual to have confidence, to exercise independence in making critical decisions and desire to learn (Linley & Joseph 2004). There are four major components of transformational leadership. These include inspirational motivation, idealised influence, individualised consideration and intellectual stimulation. The four elements contribute significantly to the positive psychology at the workplace following their associated impact on the affective wellbeing of an individual. Regarding idealised influence, the attribute enables a leader to make a decision based on what is right rather than the expectations of other members of the organisation or the cost-effectiveness of the chosen decision. The attribute motivates a leader to engage in behaviours that will express their moral commitment to their individual actions and those of their followers. Therefore, as a leader, exhibiting idealised influence is one of the avenues of generating trust among the other employees of the organisation. Idealised influence also guarantees positive perceptions about interpersonal justice on the part of the employees of the firm. The ability of a leader to set higher than anticipated performance standards and motivate their employees to strive to achieve the limits of the expectations constitutes inspirational motivation. Therefore, leaders that portray inspirational motivation tend to encourage their employees to perform at their very best in all cases. Apparently, there exist substantial performance barriers that may impede the efforts of employees to attain certain objectives at the workplace. Subsequently, it is the responsibility of the inspirational leader to ensure that the employees can deal effectively with both self and external barriers to organisational success. By so doing, the workers concentrate on feelings associated with what they can accomplish rather than dividing their attention to fear about what they cannot accomplish. Therefore, a good leader should be able to utilise symbols and stories to convince employees to perform particular tasks regardless with the challenges associated with performing the tasks. Intellectual stimulation suffices to be the other aspect of transformational leadership. It entails the ability of the leader to impart significant intellect in the employees thus capacitating them to respond to particular issues rather than leaving the manager to take care of all the decision-making processes of the firm. By so doing, leaders encourage their workers to think for themselves and question the validity of their previous assumptions regarding the performance of the organisation. The primary strengths associated with intellectual stimulation include fostering self-efficacy and confidence of the followers. Individualised consideration requires leaders to exhibit care and concern for the development of the employees and the psychological and physical safety. Consequently, such a leader should possess virtues such as empathy, care, compassion and the ability to listen to the needs of the followers. The leaders ought to express the attributes in stressful situations where the employees require their attention the most. Apparently, individualised consideration plays a great role in enhancing the trust between the employees and the leader by cementing the existing relationship. There are four psychological mechanisms that link wellbeing and transformational leadership. These encompass self-efficacy, meaningful work, trust in management and occupational and organisational identity. Self-efficacy Self-efficacy entails an assessment of the ability of an individual to achieve a particular level of performance. It influences the performance of the employees, their motivation and their attitudes at the workplace. The mechanism enables the leader to tackle anxiety and fear-provoking stimuli. Therefore, individuals that possess high levels of self-efficacy address their stressors quickly as compared to those that exhibit low levels of efficacy. Consequently, high self-efficacy levels among employees enable them to cope and handle all challenges and stressors effectively in the workplace thereby contributing positively to their psychological wellbeing. The components of self-efficacy encompass vicarious experiences, successful accomplishments, and verbal persuasion on the part of the leader. There exist several psychological factors that influence the affective and cognitive processes that determine the levels of self-efficacy in an individual. Firstly, the ability of the leader to utilise verbal persuasion skills to influence followers to greater heights is an indicator of self-efficacy in an individual. Secondly, the manifestation of tremendous behaviours expected by members reveals the vicarious experience of the leader. Moreover, the ability of the leader to extort followers to make them adopt a positive thinking towards stressors is the other factor and manifestation of the leader’s verbal persuasion skills. Next, the expression of successful accomplishment by the provision of a favourable environment to achieve the achievements. Meaningful Work It is the responsibility of a transformational leader to generate positive meaning from the work performed by his/her followers. Therefore, the meaning that the workers derive from their accomplishments at the workplace is a mechanism for exerting the positive results of transformational leadership on the wellbeing of an individual. The positive transformation of the meaning of work entails the ability of the transformational leader to enhance the morality levels of the employees to principled judgment levels. The transformational leader is also in a position of activating higher order needs of the followers thus broadening their scope of reasoning (Epitropaki et al. 2002). With the help of intellectual stimulation, it is possible for the leader to ensure that the followers view stressors and crises as mere challenges to their accomplishments. Therefore, to ensure that employees attach positive meaning to their work, it is imperative that the transformational leader should utilise positive verbal cues regarding the work roles performed by the followers. Trust in Management Trust refers to the willingness of a person to be susceptible to another individual. Consequently, workplace trust refers to the inclination of workers towards being responsive to their leader. Therefore, confidence in management encompasses the decision of employees to rely on the intentions, abilities and skills of their leaders. There exists a positive relationship between the trust and the outcomes of the organisation. It has a positive influence on the performance of the followers, work satisfaction and citizenship behaviours of the workers to the organisation. Therefore, to attain the respect and trust of their members, transformational leaders should act as role models by doing what is moral and right rather than what results in individual benefits. In essence, the transformational leader should serve as a role model, exhibit commitment to the needs of the employees, encourage and empower individual thinking among the followers and help employees to achieve higher than anticipated accomplishments at the workplace. Occupational and Organisational Identity According to the social identity theory, self-concept consists of personal identity that entails the idiosyncratic attributes of an individual, and the salient belonging of the person that constitute his/her social identity. Thus, the sense of belongingness to a particular group of classification is the social identification of the individual. Therefore, the occupation and the organisation are the salient categories of belonging to a person at the workplace. The organisational identification encompasses the perceived unity in the firm and the ability of the workers to regard the failures and successes of the organisation as their own. In a similar manner, occupational identity refers to the sense of oneness in a professional group exhibited by the members of the group. Apparently, professional and organisational identity are detrimental to the wellbeing of the workers at the workplace. The Reflected Best Self Exercise According to Quinn et al. (2003), the RBS exercise consists of two major parts: creating the RBS portrait and bringing the reflected best self to life. In the first phase, the first step entails identifying the potential respondents that will respond to the email. To have sufficient best-self stories, it is appropriate to select between 15 and 20 respondents. The respondent population should consist of honest individuals that have seen you at your best. Some of the respondents may be family members, friends, superiors and subordinates, customers, colleagues and other people that have had close contact with you. The next step entails requesting the reflected best stories from the respondents by sending them an email. In the third step, one should write an individual best stories and sample out the best story from the stories. Fourthly, the person should analyse the reflected best stories provided by the respondents. Fifthly, the individual should compose the portrait for the RBS exercise. In the implementation of the RBS, the objective of the particular concerns bringing the RBS to life. The knowledge obtained from the activity enables the individual to improve his/her quality of life and work (Quinn et al. 2003). Method I collected qualitative data from thirteen respondents to identify the areas of personal strength. I utilised the data in the development of the RBS portrait. In the emails, I requested the thirteen respondents to describe four scenarios that I had exhibited exemplary behaviour. I sourced the respondents both from the personal and professional contexts. For instance, I sent the email request to three family members, two colleagues, three workmates in my current job, three workmates in past jobs and two volunteers that had interacted closely with me. I believed that the selected individuals would respond with utmost honesty in writing my best-self stories to enable me to develop the RBS portrait. The majority of the respondents had known me for at least seven years with the exception of my workmates. It was interesting to observe that one of my closest friends and a member of the family pointed out some of my weaknesses. Out of the thirteen respondents, twelve submitted three stories as a response to the emails. However, one family members did not send her stories in time thus compelling me to exclude them from the final analysis. In the analysis of my perceived attributes as viewed by the respondents, I drew a table that contained the emergent themes, and the examples provided by the respondents to support the themes. I also provided my individual interpretation of the themes in the table. The section below contains a summary of the emergent themes. I compared the recurrent themes with the six virtues and twenty-four character strengths as identified by Peterson and Seligman (Peterson & Seligman 2004). The fact that I used thirteen respondents for the assignment was a drawback to the validity of the responses provided. Apparently, the number of interviewees should range between 15 and 20 to provide reliable data. The failure of two respondents to submit their responses in time also reduced the number of valid answers to eleven; thus limiting the reliability of the remaining data to the objectives of the assignment. The unreliability of the collected data was also evident among former workmates that did not have a clear memory of my behaviour while at the organisation. Subsequently, they provided vague examples that did not yield a vivid expression of my attributes. Findings The table below presents the results of the RBS survey. The classification of the best behaviour characteristics is in tandem with the six virtues and the twenty-four attributes contained in each of the virtues. Emergent Theme Specific Statements My Interpretation Wisdom and Knowledge Critical thinking Curiosity Love for learning In a recent IT project, I developed a code that solved the hardest area of the project. In a change management programme at the former workplace, I was always curious to understand all the particulars associated with the project In most strategic business decisions, I was always eager to learn the new aspects of the proposed changes I am at my best at exercising wisdom and knowledge when assigned the role of a project leader Courage Perseverance Honesty Enthusiasm During a major stressor at the organisation, I remained devoted to my duties and anticipated better outcomes. My parents trusted me among all the other siblings regarding telling the truth. Ever since I was a child, I developed an anxiety of becoming a prosperous person in future. As a result, I have never lost focus on the success stories of prominent people I thrive well when it comes to handling stressors and challenges in the organisation and at home since I consider the challenges as mere stumbling blocks to my success Humanity Kindness I offered fare to a workmate that had lost his wallet. I am at my best when it comes to exercising humanity either at home or the workplace Justice Teamwork Fairness Leadership I have always been a supporter of collaboration both at my workplace and home. When our department was termed "the best-performed department" in the organisation, I advocated for equitable sharing of the reward given to the members. As a project leader, I played tremendously well in the allocation of duties and overall management of the project's proceedings I resent injustice with passion. Consequently, I am at my best when it comes to delivering justice especially when offered a leadership role in a project Temperance Humility Caution Self-control Regardless of my position at the workplace and school, I was humble always. In the critical roles assigned by my parents, I ensured that I exercised caution to avoid errors. My parents and supervisors did not have to follow ups on me whenever they assigned me some work. I am at my best when it comes to being humble and appreciating everyone regardless of their status in the project Transcendence Gratitude Optimism In all the awards and support that I received from my parents and managers, I was appreciative always. I anticipated for a better tomorrow; both for my family, my life and the performance of the organisation I am at my best when it comes to showing gratitude for a favour that I receive from my parents, a friend or my supervisor at the workplace The results of the RBS survey revealed that I was at my best when it came to managing projects while performing the role of the project leader. The ability to encompass all the pertinent aspects of the project in the programme has always guaranteed the success of all the projects that I have managed as a project leader. A former workmate stated “you performed exemplary well while creating the sense of urgency prior to the commencement of the project”. The statement was a plus on my side since most of the staff members had not understood the significance of the proposed project to their wellbeing, and the organisation thus were planning to resist the change. However, my contribution alleviated the problem thus making the project to succeed. Reflection The findings of the RBS survey heightened some of the positive attributes that I had not noticed before. For instance, I realised that I exercised wisdom and knowledge in the IT project, the change management programme and other strategic business decisions in the organisations. Consequently, my leader did not have to spend a lot of time deciding on particular matters on the ground since I solved them exceptionally well in his absence. In all cases, I analysed the situations critically before adopting a logical approach in dealing with the emerging problems. I also realised that I am at my best when coordinating projects as a project leader since I can deal with the emerging issues. Moreover, I also encourage teamwork and guarantee fairness in the allocation of roles to the members of the project. Based on the findings, I feel like handling complex projects in a more challenging environment will enable me to enhance my skills regarding project management. The other strength heightened by the RBS survey is courage as evidenced by the perseverance, honesty and enthusiasm attribute revealed by the respondents. Personally, it was not until the mentioning of the virtue by the respondents that I realised that I possessed it. Consequently, I felt that I could deliver more to my parents, colleagues and employer in matters pertaining courage. I was embarrassed whenever I saw the other members of the project express fear that the project would fail to meet the desired objectives. The ability to convince them to surge forward in the battle towards the completion of the project has enabled them to identify that I possess the virtue and its attributes. In fact, the manager always referred to me when it came to motivating employees on a certain project. Ever since I was a toddler, I have always been kind to my peers and siblings. Consequently, I was not surprised when almost all the respondents emphasised that I was kind to all the employees that I dealt with at the workplace. They also noted that I portrayed teamwork, fairness and justice in the management of a project or while handling my workmates to accomplish a certain task. One of the respondents noted that I portrayed self-control whenever I was annoyed or incited by deviant behaviour from one of the workmates. I exercised caution while handling such extreme cases to ascertain the attainment of the objectives of the mission regardless of the emergent obstacles. On one occasion, members almost lost hope when one of the projects that the company had invested significantly failed to “break even” at the anticipated time. Upon conducting a keen analysis of the factors affecting the performance of the project and the causes of the slow growth, I provided possible recommendations to the manager. I encouraged my workmates that the project would soon yield the expected profits. The findings of the RBS survey also heightened the virtue. Best Self-Vision Statement Based on the results of the RBS survey, the virtues that would ensure that I am the best that I can encompass wisdom and knowledge, courage, humanity, justice, temperance and transcendence. Since the attributes were significant in project management, I realised that coupling the virtues with problem-solving, planning and organising skills would enable me to become the best that I can be. By exercising self-control, I can integrate the different views of the other members to develop a strategic decision that would guarantee the success of the project. Therefore, I will consider myself successful in my entire life if and only if I find substantial meaning for the work that I do. I will leverage my strengths to improve the level of job satisfaction so as to foster my well-being and positive psychology in the workplace. Conclusion The Reflected Best-Self exercise has enabled me to develop an RBS portrait that portrays my virtues when I am at my best. The literature review highlighted the benefits associated with positive psychology such as employee motivation, job satisfaction and improved performance and wellbeing. An analysis of the recurrent themes revealed by the findings indicates that I am at my best while performing the role of a project leader in programme management. I have also learnt that perseverance and optimism are critical aspects of any project. Reference List Gable, S L & Haidt, J 2005, ‘What (and why) is positive psychology?’ Review of general psychology, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 103. Linley, P A & Joseph, S (Eds.) 2004, ‘Positive psychology in practice’, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, pp. 713-731. Peterson, C & Seligman, M E P 2004, ‘Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification’, New York: American Psychological Association & Oxford University Press. Quinn, R E, Dutton, J E, Spreitzer, G M & Roberts, L M 2003, ‘Reflected Best Self Exercise’, Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship, University of Michigan. Ryff, C D 2003, ‘Corners of myopia in the positive psychology parade’, Psychological Inquiry, vol. 14, pp. 153–159. Turner, N, Barling, J, Epitropaki, O, Butcher, V & Milner, C 2002, ‘Transformational leadership and moral reasoning’, Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 87, pp. 304–311. Read More

There are four major components of transformational leadership. These include inspirational motivation, idealised influence, individualised consideration and intellectual stimulation. The four elements contribute significantly to the positive psychology at the workplace following their associated impact on the affective wellbeing of an individual. Regarding idealised influence, the attribute enables a leader to make a decision based on what is right rather than the expectations of other members of the organisation or the cost-effectiveness of the chosen decision.

The attribute motivates a leader to engage in behaviours that will express their moral commitment to their individual actions and those of their followers. Therefore, as a leader, exhibiting idealised influence is one of the avenues of generating trust among the other employees of the organisation. Idealised influence also guarantees positive perceptions about interpersonal justice on the part of the employees of the firm. The ability of a leader to set higher than anticipated performance standards and motivate their employees to strive to achieve the limits of the expectations constitutes inspirational motivation.

Therefore, leaders that portray inspirational motivation tend to encourage their employees to perform at their very best in all cases. Apparently, there exist substantial performance barriers that may impede the efforts of employees to attain certain objectives at the workplace. Subsequently, it is the responsibility of the inspirational leader to ensure that the employees can deal effectively with both self and external barriers to organisational success. By so doing, the workers concentrate on feelings associated with what they can accomplish rather than dividing their attention to fear about what they cannot accomplish.

Therefore, a good leader should be able to utilise symbols and stories to convince employees to perform particular tasks regardless with the challenges associated with performing the tasks. Intellectual stimulation suffices to be the other aspect of transformational leadership. It entails the ability of the leader to impart significant intellect in the employees thus capacitating them to respond to particular issues rather than leaving the manager to take care of all the decision-making processes of the firm.

By so doing, leaders encourage their workers to think for themselves and question the validity of their previous assumptions regarding the performance of the organisation. The primary strengths associated with intellectual stimulation include fostering self-efficacy and confidence of the followers. Individualised consideration requires leaders to exhibit care and concern for the development of the employees and the psychological and physical safety. Consequently, such a leader should possess virtues such as empathy, care, compassion and the ability to listen to the needs of the followers.

The leaders ought to express the attributes in stressful situations where the employees require their attention the most. Apparently, individualised consideration plays a great role in enhancing the trust between the employees and the leader by cementing the existing relationship. There are four psychological mechanisms that link wellbeing and transformational leadership. These encompass self-efficacy, meaningful work, trust in management and occupational and organisational identity. Self-efficacy Self-efficacy entails an assessment of the ability of an individual to achieve a particular level of performance.

It influences the performance of the employees, their motivation and their attitudes at the workplace. The mechanism enables the leader to tackle anxiety and fear-provoking stimuli. Therefore, individuals that possess high levels of self-efficacy address their stressors quickly as compared to those that exhibit low levels of efficacy. Consequently, high self-efficacy levels among employees enable them to cope and handle all challenges and stressors effectively in the workplace thereby contributing positively to their psychological wellbeing.

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