Conversation Hour Presentation 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

Adding Value(S) At Work: How Applied Positive Organizational Psychology Can Help Organizations Do The Right Thing (#162)

Andrew Soren 1 2 , Reb Rebele 3 4 , Jan Stanley 5 6 , Robert J Easton 7 8
  1. MAPP Alumni Association , University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
  2. LRN Corporation, Montevideo, MVD, Uruguay
  3. Wharton People Analytics, University of Pennsylvania, Melbourne, Australia
  4. Personality Processes Lab in the School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
  5. HOW Institute for Society, New York City, NY, USA
  6. LRN Corporation, New York City, NY, USA
  7. Accenture, Sydney, Australia
  8. Weather School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA

Many positive organizational scholars and practitioners subscribe to Aristotle’s notion that eudaimonia is the end to which all of our human efforts aim. Typically translated as happiness, well-being or flourishing, eudaimonia has become a North Star for many in the field – pointing research and practice in the direction of increasing employee engagement and meaning while reducing burnout and other forms of professional ill-being. Yet embedded in Aristotle’s definition of eudaimonia were principles about the difficult daily practice of virtue and questions about how we can do the right thing at the right time in the right way. Organizations often struggle to balance the goal of maximizing shareholder value with other outcomes that relate to a sense of the greater good that Aristotle was striving for. Harnessing recent research, case studies and personal experience, this discussion hour will bring together practitioners, scholars and organizational leaders to engage in dialogue about how applied positive organizational psychology can help us connect to our most human values.