Human Resource Management

‘Anatomy of…………………..Hope’

Section B

PGP05087 Praveen SinghAbstract"Hope is the fundamental belief in the potential of every person to be a force for good” – Jor El

This article tries to introduce a connection between Positive Organizational Behavior (POB) and Hope. How can one manage Hope in an organization? In addition, I’ve tried to uncover whether Cynicism replaced Hope in the organizations?

Literature ReviewAs per an article on Forbes.com, These three observations are the ones to which I personally agree.

Hope Renews Faith Hope Builds Self-Confidence Hope Helps Increase Productivity and Underscores a Positive Work

Ethic

But if everything is so goody-goody about hope then why there is Despair, Lie and Pessimism??

“Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope.” –Margaret Thatcher upon election as Prime Minister, 1979

I think it is the law of nature that there must be an opposition for all things. We need something to encourage and inspire us such that we can rise again like the beam of sunlight rising up and above the horizon.

“Each time a hope is fulfilled it prompts more prominent hope. Our parents have taught us to move forward and put faith and hope into action, not just worrying or wishful thinking, sustained our family and me and gave confidence that present circumstances would give way to future blessings.” – Infinite Power of hope [R]

According to Luthans (2002), POB is interested in ‘‘the study and application of positively oriented human resource strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed for performance improvement in today’s workplace’’ (p. 59). Luthans has argued that inclusion criteria for POB are being theory and research based, measurable, developmental, and manageable for performance impact in the workplace. POB has emerged from the recently proposed positive psychology approach. Psychology has been criticized as primarily dedicated to addressing mental illness rather than mental ‘‘wellness’’—the four D’s approach. The purpose of Positive Psychology ‘‘...is to begin to catalyze a change in the focus of psychology from pre-occupation only with repairing the worst things in life to also building positive qualities’’ (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000, p. 5).

Thus, to sum it up we can say that Positive Psychology studies the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive. While going through this I thought why not google a theory on hope, maybe I can find one. Luckily to my ignorance there is a theory on hope. Yes theory on even hope.

According to Snyder (2000), HOPE has three necessary ingredients:

Goal-oriented thoughts – Non-random human behaviors are directed by some goal, either short-term or long-term. Goals need to be of sufficient value to the individual so as to occupy conscious thought. Goals should be attainable yet challenging in nature - goals that are 100% likely to be achieved do not give people hope.

Pathways to achievement - In order to achieve goals, people need to generate plausible routes to achieve goals. This type of thought process begins in infancy when cause and effect relationships are first being understood. Children see that certain actions influence events that occur.

Agency Thoughts - In this motivational component to hope, people believe that they can initiate and sustain the pathways to goal achievement. This type of thought begins after 1 year of age when children realize they are actors who can influence their environment and initiate cause-and-effect relationships. Positive emotions equal perceived success in achieving goals. Negative emotions equal perceived failure in achieving goals.

Negativity in an organization“There are factors which cause people not to feel excited about their work. For some work is monotonous, for some there is always firefighting to deliver something. Some are overburdened with processes. Overall picture is not very exciting.” – Mr. Aanad Rawat (Fiserv)

“Every day can't be superb, and similiarly every day can't be worst too. Employees tend to go negative” – Mr. Prakash Mehra (Open Solutions)

Have we ever wondered why the demoralized employees comes to workplace every day? I mean if he or she is so unhappy with their job duties, the organization, or with management? Then why doesn't the employee simply find another job where he or she will be happier?

ResearchAim: The aim of the study was to break down the quintessence of HOPE for individuals in organizations.

Methodology: Respondents included people of both sexes aged 18–40 years. Questionnaire (Google Form) was floated within the friend circle about how do they feel about Hope? What comes first when they hear the word Hope? I acknowledged it to be an adequate sample size for qualitative studies. Help of social media was also taken whereas Telephonic invites were also sent whether they were even interested or not.

Questionnaire included these questions:

What does hope mean to you? Has Cynicism replaced Hope in the organization? What would you do as an HR guy to keep your employees motivated? On a scale of 1-5, how would you rate your work environment? On a scale of 1-5, what do you think the chances of you getting a pay

hike? On a scale of 1-5, how likely are you to switch the company? On a scale of 1-5, how optimistic are you? On a scale of 1-5, do you ever feel depressed? If yes to above question, please elaborate between the situations

where you feel Optimistic and when do you feel Depressed?

One to One Insights

1. “I remember when you and I went for that movie ‘Man of Steel’, on your birthday. That was the time when I first realized the value of hope. There was a scene where Superman is questioned “What is S?”…."It's not an S, on my planet it means HOPE” Superman said.” – Mr. Aashish Zaroo (Test Engineer, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd)

2. I’ve worked with three companies of different domains, from startup to powerhouses, I see hope as only single factor of success. If I am optimistic then I can work wonders” – Mr. Tarun Sachdeva (Business Process Lead, CITI eServe)

3. “Hope leads to good work. There may be times when we must settle on a brave choice to hope actually when everything around us disaffirms this hope. So we must believe in ourselves” – Ms. Nisha Kandhoul (Software Developer, Dunnhumby India)

4. “I personally the love one particular quote from Shawshank Redemption: Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free” – Ms. Milan Gupta (Technology Analyst, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd)

5. Last but not the least, “to me, Hope is MANCHESTER UNITED. I've supported them for so long now (since 1998) that they're in my blood. I love them and they're a huge part of my life. I feel bad when we lose matches and feel miserable when we lose due to referee decisions (As against Real Madrid in UCL). Winning matches in the stoppage time. I love Manchester United because of their traditions”

ConclusionSo after analyzing all the data though it was not much, I came to a conclusion that since most of the people of the sample were working professionals, they tend to vote down their current organization. Though some of them were happy but most of them were looking for a greener grass. Although participants mostly spoke of hope in a positive light, some revealed its dark side.

At the point when individuals feel lost and vexed in their careers – once in a while all they need is a dosage of hope. It requires the person to use sound judgment keeping in mind the end goal to maintain its positive effects. The work environment culture, the individuals you socialize yourself with are simply a couple of things that impact your level of hope. People just want to hear a leader let them know that everything will be fine. They need an assurance that ALL IS WELL, an indication that their stresses will soon be gone. Individuals plan to recover that minute in time when they felt their best.

References “Managing Hope in a workplace” by Dr. Robert Veninga Positive Organizational Behavior in the Workplace by Carolyn M.

Youssef and Fred Luthans

Wright, T. A. (2003). Positive organizational behavior: An idea whose time has truly come. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 24, 437–442.

Luthans, F. (2002). The need for and meaning of positive organizational behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26, 695–706.

Turner, N., Barling, J., & Zacharatos, A. (2002). Positive psychology at work. In C. R. Snyder, & S. Lopez (Eds.), The handbook of positive psychology (pp. 715–730). Oxford: Oxford University Press

Luthans, F., & Youssef, C. M. (2007). Emerging Positive Organizational Behavior. Journal of Management, 33, 321–349.

“The Role of Hope in Cognitive-Behavior Therapies”- C. R. Snyder, Stephen S. Ilardi, Jen Cheavens, Scott T. Michael, Laura Yamhure, and Susie Sympson

http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2013/08/19/5-ways-leaders-keep-hope-alive-in-difficult-times/

In Depth Interview with my 4-5 friends