Poster Presentation 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

Why Agile May Be The Key Way That Positive Psychology Can Support Organizations In The Age Of Disruption (#740)

Richard T Parton 1 2
  1. DXC Technology, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  2. Centre for Positive Psychology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

In the modern era organizations are experiencing significant and growing levels of change and uncertainty. The agile movement is a rapidly growing grass-roots movement responding to this , founded in humanistic values, such as valuing individuals and interactions over processes tools, and emphasizing self-determination, pro-social behavior and personal growth (Abbas et al., 2008; “Manifesto for Agile Software Development,” 2018).

Team flow, a form of optimal team experience, represents an interesting example of how concepts from positive psychology can apply to and enhance agile practices. Focusing on a systematic review by Van den Hout, Davis and Weggeman, 2018 of the team flow literature, we will discuss: i) the opportunity that the agile movement presents for bringing positive psychology to organisations; ii) specific ways that team flow pre-requisites and characteristics can be used to inform and enhance agile practices; iii) explore the use of participatory design, for example use of a Participatory Action Research framework to create a situation-appropriate and continuously improving application of the literature to practice.