Job Involvement and Positive Psychology

Abstract

Job involvement, understood as one form of commitment – alongside organisational commitment, professional commitment and supervision – is the one most linked with a person’s behaviour. It results from individual characteristics (attitudes, motivation) determinants as well as social-system factors (management style, organisational culture, well-being). Developing this type of commitment in reference to the concept of positive psychology makes not only tangible assets easily calculated in business, but generates intangible assets that may help raise employee well-being and happiness. Positive psychology, at the beginning of the century described the specifics of the states of optimal experience (“flow”) in which people act at the limits of their capabilities, reaching out with their most specialised resources and, in turn, gaining significant gratification as a result of the mere act of “high turnover”. The article develops the following theses: job commiment correlates positively not only with the quality of work but also with personal well-being (happiness), job commitment may be conceptualised by state of optimal experience (absorption), in the organisational perspective it should be essential to promote the achievement of “flow” experiences by employees as well as to identify and use their signature strengths.