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In this article I examine the attractions and shortcomings of the “positive” neohumanisitic turn in organizational theorizing and how positivity might be developed. I evaluate positivity's moral and cultural underpinnings and claims to separate positive from negative emotions, and I explore the deployment of positiveness in HRM programs of empowerment, emotional intelligence, and fun at work. I conclude with suggestions on how positive scholarship could be reconfigured in light of the present critique and against the emancipatory ideas of critical organizational theory.
Stephen Fineman (Sat,) studied this question.