2011- Working Papers: Organizational Behavior and Human Resources
Character strengths, employee well-being, and performance: A field experiment, 58 pp.
H. Rahamim Engel, M. Westman and D. Heller
(Working Paper No. 8/2011)
Character strength and virtues play a significant role in the Positive Psychology's effort to build positive qualities both at the individual and at the group level. Seligman's (2002) model of happiness suggests a fundamental link between character strengths and well-being, and specifically suggests that the behavioral manifestation (or the demonstration) of strengths is linked to well being. Furthermore, it has been found that five strengths (Curiosity, love, gratitude, zest, and optimism) are more related to happiness than others. Following her “broaden and build” theory Fredrickson (2001) suggests that positive emotions positively affect performance. Despite these theoretical links between strength demonstration, well-being, and performance, the empirical examination of these relationships is still in its initial stages. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of the demonstration of character strengths on employee well being and performance. More specifically, we hypothesized that the demonstration of the five "happy people's strength" – love, curiosity, zest, gratitude and optimism will positively affect employee's well being and performance. We tested the effect of the demonstration of these specific strengths on well-being and performance of 85 employees working in a call center of an Israeli cellular phone company. Findings partially support the hypothesis. The demonstration of strengths had a significant positive impact on employee's performance measured as the average number of calls handled by the employee at each hour. However, the demonstration had no effect on employees' levels of well being. Implications are discussed.
The impact of help-seeking on individual task performance: The moderating effect of helpseekers’ logics of action, 34 pp.
P. Bamberger and D. Geller
(Working Paper No. 12/2011)
Drawing from achievement-goal theory and the social psychological literature on help-seeking, we propose that it is the variance in the logic underpinning employees’ help-seeking that explains divergent findings regarding the relationship between help-seeking and task performance. Using a sample of 110 newly hired customer contact employees, a prospective study design, and archival performance data, we find that, the help-seeking-performance relationship is indeed conditioned by the help-seeker’s help-seeking logic (autonomous versus dependent logic). High levels of help-seeking are positively related to performance only among those either more strongly endorsing an autonomous help-seeking logic or more weakly endorsing a dependent help-seeking logic.
Architectural leadership: The neglected core of organizational leadership, 56 pp.
E. Kollenscher, D. Eden, B. Ronen and M. Farjoun
(Working Paper No. 25/2011)
The cornerstone of Architectural Leadership (AL) theory is to structure the organization in service to its strategy so as to improve its capabilities and enhance its value. Rather than relying on the CEO's personal influence, structuring centers on core organization-wide processes that diffuse leadership influence across managerial levels and harness the whole organization better to attain its goals. AL is grounded in its authors’ extensive experience as managers and consultants. It is intended to complement theories that focus on targets but neglect the means needed to achieve them. Though most managers spend much of their time dealing with the means while struggling with insufficient infrastructure, existing management theories ignore these issues or say little about them. Applying AL theory can help managers create value by doing them much more effectively.
