Positive Organizational Behavior: What’s in It for HRD in South Korea?

Psychology is one of the theoretical foundations of human resource development (HRD) discipline. Traditional psychology has been based on the negativity that human beings are fragile and flawed. As a repercussion, a positive psychology movement has emerged for the last three decades, concerning with optimal human functioning instead of pathological human functioning. Recognizing the untapped potential of this science-based, positively oriented approach, scholars in organizational theory and behavior have developed two major parallel and complementary movements: organizational scholarship and positive organizational behavior (POB). The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of this positive psychological movement to HRD. The scope and goals of HRD in organizations were reexamined. The link between POB and HRD is clear in that POB constructs are to be state-like versus trait-like, open to developed, and relevant to performance. Based on an Input–Process–Output model, the potential constructs that overlap HRD and POB research were proposed for future research. Further, an overall trend analysis of POB research for the last two decades was examined, based on the keywords search of six POB constructs through Google Scholar. Last, the implications of POB research in the field of HRD in Korea were discussed.