Essay Sample on Positive Psychology Applied to a Workplace

Introduction

The positive psychology in the workplace focuses on developing the team and individual strength. The research on the character strength in the workplace has gradually gained more attention in the recent past, especially by the organizations that have recorded low performance and poor employee retention. Human resources professionals, executives, managers, and consultants are now regularly weaving character strengths exercises to assist their employees in becoming more productive, engaged and happy when performing their duties. The application of character strengths enhances the skills of the leaders, teams and the whole organization; also it is growing to be a fruitful and common avenue (Avey, Luthans, Hannah, Sweetman, & Peterson, 2012). Positive psychology in the workplace involves diverting attention away from the negative perception like the stress, workplace violence, burnout, together with job insecurity. As noted by Money, Hillenbrand, and Da Camara (2009) an organization cannot prosper sustainably when 1 in 5 of the employees is sufficiently excited, enthusiastic and engaged at the workplace, whereas 1 in 5 employees is demoralized and wished never to have come to work. The following research seeks to discuss positive psychology as applied in the workplace to promote character strength in the workplace and creating sustained success in the business.

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Applications of Positive Psychology

An effective organization operates as it nurtures its workers with character strengths and virtues that will assist them in adapting to the environment and ensure the effectiveness in performance. The core internal strengths that are essential in every workplace include: (a) thinking-oriented, a person needs to be creative, curious and judgmental in every situation at the workplace (Money et al., (2009). (b) Interpersonal, both at the front and back office one is supposed to express some social intelligence and love to the colleagues and clients (Avey et al., 2012). (c) Community focused, one needs to be steadfast at communicating fairness and teamwork when engaging with other colleagues (Avey et al., 2012). (d) Spiritual, the workers need to express some gratitude and hope (Avey et al., 2012). (e) Gut-oriented, one is required to exercise perseverance and braving when facing the challenges at the workplace and remaining loyal to his duties (Avey et al., 2012). (f) Corrective, it is common for one to get into a mistake at the workplace, and it is required for one to express some forgiveness, humility, and self-regulation at such a situation (Avey et al., 2012).

Strengths and Weaknesses of Positive Psychology Applications in the workplace

Positive psychology in the workplace is accompanied with some advantages and disadvantages which influence its effectiveness (Avey et al., 2012). Among the benefits that are associated with positive psychology includes promoting the health, longevity, wellbeing as well as more excellent quality of life among the workers; this is contrary to depression, anger, anxiety, and worry that are associated with poor health outcomes. The long-term advantage is that it builds success for the organizations, together with the wellbeing of the employees and encouraging them to attain the peak performance and to thrive in their careers. On the other hand, the positive psychology at the workplace allows the organization or individual to thrive, instead of focusing on the failures and weaknesses that lead them to failure. The research by Money et al., (2009) established that the positive emotion could offset the effects of negative sentiment and even fight physical illness. Also, the positive psychology considers happiness as essential for its own sake is an elusive goal and seeking it can prompt to unhappiness. The limitation noted is that the workers tend to pursue happiness rather than vitality; they shy from thinking both positively and negatively regarding different issues when making decisions, inability to tally with other, as well as fear of embracing the dark side of life. Concisely, positive psychology at the workplace promotes a lot of comfort and relaxation among the workers such that they cannot focus on some of the imminent issues in their profession or in their personal lives. Another limitation is that positive psychology at the workplace can make someone suppress some emotional content that may be important and informative, though, the ones that one can deduce as negative or unproductive. Instead of going away, the emotional retreats into the subconscious and may surface at the inappropriate times. To some instance, for example, it may lead to overreaction to constructiveness criticism, or a failure to integrate it.

Research Supporting the Application of Positive Psychology in the Workplace Setting

Through the application of positive psychology, promotes a work environment with the goal of enhancing positivity among the employees. The different levels at the workplace essentially need the positive psychology as the means of supporting the effectiveness of the organization as a whole; this is ideal for the managers, team leaders, supervisors, learning and development specialists, trainers. In that course, the seniors are the ones take with the responsibility of ensuring that the workers are motivated, and are having a peace of mind and harmony at the workplace. The suitable condition where the positive psychology applied is in the case where the workers are encountered with issues such as domestic or workplace stress, workplace violence, burnout, together with job insecurity. The workers cannot be productive at the optimum level if they are in tension. When the manager, team leader of the supervisors is essential to discuss among themselves on how they can spice the work times with a lot of fun and comfort to make them feel secure in mind and enthusiastic on working together with the agenda, mission, and vision of the organization. The application of positive psychology will on the long run promote the sense of belonging to an institution, employee retention, job satisfaction, discipline, customer satisfaction, productivity, and harmony to an organization. This means that positive psychology has to be moderately considered at the workplace.

Conclusion

To sum up, positive psychology is significant at creatively manage organizational behaviors and to upsurge productivity in the workplace through positive organizational forces. The central concept regarding positive psychology is that it brings the peace of mind to the workers at the institution with the help of the managers, supervisors and team leaders. The comfort in mind and heart can extend from an organizational level to the personal level where it affects the current and future life of an individual. Having in mind that the workplace is the best place to make the employees have sober plans on how to prosper in the life, including how to increase competency at work by upgrading the education level, promoting healthy living to reduce instances of absenteeism at work and how to gain family support at work. Fun should not be considered as something that cannot be attained during the work; instead it should be viewed as the motivation factor for the staff. Altogether, it is imperative to scrutinize the role of assisting the character and behavior of the work support team building, job security, and job resources. Research on positive psychology in the workplace has promoted job retention and job satisfaction. However, the cons that comes with the positive psychology at the workplace has to be put into consideration since it will adversely influence the wellbeing and career development of the workers in the long run.

References

Avey, J. B., Luthans, F., Hannah, S. T., Sweetman, D., & Peterson, C. (2012). Impact of employees' character strengths of wisdom on stress and creative performance. Human Resource Management Journal, 22(2), 165-181.Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2010.00157.x

Money, K., Hillenbrand, C., & Da Camara, N. (2009). Putting positive psychology to work in organizations. Journal of General Management, 34(3), 31-36.