Positive organizational behavior: engaged employees in flourishing organizations

Abstract This editorial introduces a special issue of the Journal of Organizational Behavior on positive organizational behavior (POB). POB emphasizes the need for more focused theory building, research, and effective application of positive traits, states, and behaviors of employees in organizations. We argue that in order to make a substantive contribution to organizational science, POB will need to show the added value of the positive over and above the negative. In addition, the emerging concept of employee engagement is briefly introduced. The papers in the special issue describe exciting positive organizational behavior studies that each tap into an interesting direction in which POB research might go. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.