Symposium Summary: 

Chair: Jamie Shapiro, CONNECTED EC

Positive Psychology research focused on workplace topics has grown tremendously over the past decade.  This symposium is designed to showcase some of the most recent empirical findings examining the links between well-being, vitality, and positive functioning at work, as well as connect those finding to conceptual advances in understanding these topics at the worker, leader, team, and organizational levels of analysis.  The first presentation will focus on the presentation of recent empirical findings illustrating the interconnections of building block of well-being, and how these interconnections relate to work performance.  The second presentation will take a deep dive into understand the importance of leader vitality and well-being.  Leaders of organizations have incessant demands placed on them, including cultivating teams, building culture, and increasing the bottom line, in addition to caring for employee well-being and thriving.  The empirical findings of two new quantitative studies of leader vitality, and the results of a qualitative study focused on CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and leader vitality will be presented in detail.  Finally, the third presentation will be focused on presenting empirical findings from several recent studies illustrating the empirical links between well-being, vitality, and positive functioning at work at the worker, leadership, team, and organizational levels of analysis.  In addition, findings from exemplary evidence-based positive organizational psychology interventions will be presented.  Time will be reserved after each presentation and toward the end of the symposium for audience questions and participation.

Symposium Presentation 1: Burning Bright or Burning Out: A Comprehensive Understanding of Leader Vitality

Presenter: Jamie Shapiro, CONNECTED EC 

Now more than ever, following the pandemic, leader burnout is a pervasive problem across the globe. A recent survey of several thousand senior leaders across the United States found that 72% of leaders reported being burned out (HR Executive, 2021). Numerous resources are required to meet the continuous demands placed on leaders, and vitality is one of the most valuable resources. Leader vitality includes the physical, psychological, and emotional energy available to the self (Shapiro & Donaldson, 2022). Leaders of organizations have incessant demands placed on them, including cultivating teams, building culture, and increasing the bottom line, in addition to caring for employee well-being and thriving. However, most of the research in leadership is focused on the impact of leaders on followers and organizations, while insufficient attention has been devoted to the internal resources necessary to sustain these effects. This proposed symposium presentation will summarize the latest research in leader vitality including the Leader Vitality Scale (Shapiro & Donaldson, 2022), 2 quantitative studies in leader vitality, and the results of a qualitative study focused on CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and leader vitality.  The goal of this presentation will be to produce additional insights in leader vitality through the consolidation and synthesis of the theoretical and empirical research. 

Symposium Presentation 2: PERMA+4: Investigating a New Framework to Better Understand the Building Blocks of Well-being at Work

Presenter: Victoria Cabrera, The Leader & Organization Vitality Center

The PERMA framework describes five major building blocks or antecedents that contribute to well-being and can be targeted in well-being interventions: positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment (Seligman, 2018). Donaldson & Donaldson (2020) identified four additional building blocks of well-being to provide a more comprehensive PERMA+4 framework that can be used to describe the building blocks of well-being in workplace settings: physical health, mindset, environment, and economic security. Research studies have established PERMA+4 as a strong predictor of subjective well-being and positive outcomes at work, like work role performance and organizational citizenship behavior (Donaldson & Donaldson, 2020; Donaldson et al., 2021). This presentation aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of the building blocks of well-being at work. The presentation will share the findings from a mixed-methods research study conducted with workers that addresses the following questions: 1) What are the relationships among the PERMA+4 building blocks and how do they interact to improve well-being? 2) Which PERMA+4 building blocks or combinations of building blocks contribute most to improving well-being and work performance? 3) Are there moderators or enablers at work that help the PERMA+4 building blocks improve well-being? The goal of this presentation is to provide a more nuanced understanding of the building blocks of well-being at work based on the latest research findings and to discuss implications for future research and the design of well-being interventions.

Symposium Presentation 3: Conceptual and Empirical Advances in Positive Organizational Psychology

Presenter: Stewart I. Donaldson, Claremont Graduate University

Donaldson and Ko (2010) defined positive organizational psychology (POP) “as the scientific study of positive subjective experiences and traits in the workplace and positive organizations, and its application to improve the effectiveness and quality of life in organizations.”  More than a decade later, many conceptual and empirical advances have occurred and POP has become a very vibrant, popular, and growing specialty area within IPPA, supported by one of the largest divisions – Work and Organizations.  The purpose of this presentation, is to briefly review these advances focused on well-being, vitality, and positive functioning at work at the worker, leadership, team, and organizational level of analysis.  New empirical data from several recent studies will be presented to illustrate these empirical links as well as key moderators, and findings from exemplary evidence-based POP interventions will be presented.  Implications for future POP research and potential new topics for positive organizational psychology 2.0 will be explored.

Discussant: Beggi Ólafs, Beggi Ólafs., Iceland