Well-Being, Leadership, and Positive Organizational Scholarship: A Case Study of Project-Based Learning in Higher Education.

The emerging fields of positive psychology and positive organizational scholarship (POS) contribute new perspectives and approaches for leadership education and leadership development in higher education. While there are emerging empirical studies in these new fields, little connection has been made to the intellectual and practical applications for undergraduate leadership education. In this paper, the authors make a case for the intersection of leadership and positive organizational scholarship in the context of an academic course that combines theory-to-practice using a project-based learning approach. Student learning gains in this course are reported through a pre-post assessment of student’s competency and personal levels of well-being. An increasing number of colleges and universities are turning attention to the science of well-being and positive psychology within the context of higher education (Lopez, 2006; Parks, 2013). Well-being as a construct has existed for centuries in conventional disciplines such as philosophy and psychology, but only recently has it gained traction as an area of research and subsequent evidence-based applications, largely attributable to the advent of positive psychology (Rathunde, 2001; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). A wide range of disciplines and fields are now engaging in critical questions and intellectual discourse on areas including the scholarship of strengths, well-being, and optimal functioning (Donaldson & Ko, 2010). Interdisciplinary fields are emerging, such as neuropsychology and neuroleadership,that forge these relationships and advance new knowledge and evidence-based practices. In the context of higher education, the aim of positive psychology has been to create conditions under which students can flourish by maximizing their strengths, finding flow or optimal experiences, and improving their experiences (Buck, Carr, & Robertson, 2008). Much has been written on the effects of bad or toxic leadership on organizational members and followers, resulting in moral distress, conflict, turnover, and negative effects on creativity and performance (Kellerman, 2004; Lipman-Blumen, 2005; Liu, Liao, & Loi, 2012). The emerging field of positive organizational scholarship shows the connection between positive organizational behavior and emotions with leadership (Cameron, Dutton, & Quinn, 2003). Positive leadership approaches yield gains in extraordinary performance or what Cameron (2008) refers to as “positively deviant performance” that significantly exceeds expectations (p. Journal of Leadership Education DOI: 10.12806/V14/I4/T2 Special 2015 139 2). Studies of organizations that practice positive leadership show increases in profits, productivity, quality or work, customer satisfaction, and employee retention (Cameron, Bright, & Caza, 2004; Cameron, 2013). Unlike toxic leaders, positive leaders have a positive impact on organizational members’ well-being, including reports of greater meaning in their work and increased psychological well-being (Barling, 2014). Research and applications on positive leadership, positive organizational behavior, and positive capital have gained most traction in the workplace (Avolio & Luthans, 2006; Cameron, 2008; Cameron & Caza, 2004; Cameron, Dutton, & Quinn, 2003; Donaldson & Ko, 2010; Lucas, 2015; Luthans & Youssef, 2007). According to a 2010 review, a total of 148 empirically-based articles were published on the topics of positive organizational scholarship, positive organizational behavior, or organizational studies from a positive psychology perspective. The topic of positive leadership topped the list with 17 articles, while the topics of hope and work-life relationships were at the bottom with three publications each (Donaldson & Ko, 2010). While claims cannot be made for the robust base of peer-reviewed publications on positive leadership, there are indications that this overall body of literature is growing. Informal and formal leaders are using these approaches as a way to create and sustain high performing teams and conditions where all organizational members can flourish. Higher education is lagging behind the workforce in preparing future generations of leaders and employees with this framework. In reviewing the formal literature on leadership education and positive psychology in the context of higher education, little evidence exists on how students formally learn about these connections and applications. For example, Acacia Parks (2013) published an edited volume on Positive Psychology in Higher Education showcasing a number of educational courses and programs designed for college students, with instruction on developmental psychology and adolescent popularity, service-learning, and happiness. Yet, there was no reference to connections between leadership education and positive psychology. As another example, in the book Exploring Leadership: For College Students Who Want to Make a Difference, the authors dedicate a chapter on the intersection of positive psychology and leadership (Komives, Lucas, & McMahaon, 2013), but it falls short of exposing students to the depth and breadth of this work. A deeper dive is needed to enhance student’s learning on the connections between leadership and positive organizational scholarship. Providing leadership educational experiences to undergraduate students where they can learn about the science and application of positive organization scholarship and its connection with leadership will prepare students for advancing these concepts in public and private sector organizations. Students’ individual well-being can be simultaneously enhanced as they learn the science of optimal human functioning, strengths, resilience, positive emotions, and positive relationships. In the current paper, we present a case study of project-based learning (PBL) within an academic course that was designed to advance college students’ knowledge on the intersection of leadership and positive organizational scholarship. A major emphasis on this course was transforming the classroom into a laboratory where students applied formal course concepts and interventions with client organizations. We discuss the impact the course had on students’ learning and personal levels of well-being in the context of findings from a self-report survey students completed before and after the course. Journal of Leadership Education DOI: 10.12806/V14/I4/T2 Special 2015 140 Intersections of Leadership and Positive Organizational Scholarship Positive psychology is defined as “. the study of the conditions and processes that contribute to the flourishing or optimal functioning of people, groups, and institutions (Gable & Haidt, 2005, p. 104). Other authors refer to positive psychology as “. nothing more than the scientific study of ordinary human strengths and virtues” (Sheldon & King, 2001, p. 216). Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) describe the evolution of the positive psychology field in three levels: The subjective level is about valued subjective experiences: well-being, contentment, and satisfaction (in the past); hope and optimism (for the future); and flow and happiness (in the present). At the individual level, it is about positive individual traits: the capacity for love and vocation, courage, interpersonal skill, aesthetic sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, future mindedness, spirituality, high talent, and wisdom. At the group level, it is about civic virtues and the institutions that move individuals toward better citizenship: responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility, moderation, tolerance, and work ethic. (p. 5) Building upon the work in the positive psychology field, positive organizational scholarship (POS) emerged in 2003 as a new subfield in organizational sciences (Cameron & Spreitzer, 2012). Cameron, Dutton, and Quinn (2003) describe POS as “. the study of especially positive outcomes, processes, and attributes of organizations and their members” (p. 4). Distinguished from organizational studies, POS has an emphasis on the positive conditions that enable people in organizations to thrive using terms such as excellence, thriving, flourishing, abundance, resilience, or virtuousness (Cameron & Spreitzer, 2012). “POS promotes the study of enablers, motivations, and effects associated with positive phenomena, with the aim of revealing positive states and processes that would otherwise be missed or obscured by traditional, ‘nonPOS,’ perspectives” (Caza & Cameron, 2008, p. 3). While positive organizational scholarship and practices are gaining attention in the public and private sectors, this work has been sparsely integrated into college and university student leadership programs and academic courses. Deepening Students’ Learning of Leadership and Positive Organizational Scholarship Using Project-Based Learning Identifying interventions for facilitating college students’ leadership development and deep learning can be challenging. For example, day-long student leadership conferences that expose students to a wide range of topics in one-hour sessions do not deepen their learning nor do these experiences facilitate leadership development over time. At best, these types of programs provide students with an intermediate inundation of knowledge about leadership concepts and practices. Leadership courses that extend over a semester and expose students to a survey of leadership theories and models without applied learning fall short of making the critical connection of these theories with application or practice. While much has been written about the nature of leadership as an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary field, few of these connections are made in formal learning settings. More emphasis needs to be placed on how to deepen students’ leadership development (Jenkins & Dugan, Owen, 2015; Priest & Clegorne, 2015). Journal of Leadership Education DOI: 10.12806/V14/I4/T2 Special 2015 141 Project