offered a podium presentation (variation) 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

Strengths Use in the Workplace: A Review and Research Agenda (#102)

Philippe Dubreuil 1 , Marine Miglianico 1 , Paule Miquelon 1 , Arnold Bakker 2 , Charles Martin-Krumm 3
  1. Universite du Quebec à Trois-Rivieres, Trois-Rivieres, QUEBEC, Canada
  2. Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands
  3. Université de Lorraine, Metz, France

As a central topic of positive psychology, research on strengths has expanded at an accelerated pace since the early 2000s, especially in the organizational field. Considering the ever increasing volume of research conducted in this area, now seems an important time to examine the existing literature in order to gain a clear perspective on the present state of knowledge and guide future research. The objective of this presentation is therefore to review the current knowledge on strengths use in the workplace and propose an agenda for research. Extending previous work by Quinlan, Svain and Vella-Brodrick (2012) and more recently by Ghielen, van Woerkom and Meyers (2017), we review the outcomes of correlational and longitudinal studies conducted specifically on strengths use in the workplace (since 1998). Our results indicate that strengths use and development is consistently associated with job satisfaction, well-being, work engagement and work performance. We propose a roadmap inviting researchers to concentrate their efforts on the antecedents of strengths use in the workplace, the psychological processes involved in the use of strengths, and the development of (quasi-) experimental studies.