Amazon Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review to be helpful:
The idea of positive deviance might seem odd at first, but becomes quite powerful as you understand it, August 14, 2006
By Craig Matteson
Happiness is something different than the absence of misery and health is something more than the absence of disease and debilitation. These statements are so obvious as to seem trivial. However, they are still true. If you have been fortunate to be part of an organization that was in one of those wonderful upward spirals that also involved a phenomenal team that was unified and happy, well, you know that working in such a positive environment is wonderfully different than working in an organization going through downward spiral with a demoralized team. What can be most interesting is that when the phenomenal team that experienced the upward cycle runs into a rough patch, they seem to stick together and avoid letting the rough patch develop into a crushing storm.
This terrific book is not one of those soft and gooey books calling for people to just get along or offering what amount to incantations in order to get people to somehow coalesce into the team they aren't. Instead, it posits the notion that when an organization is in a state of a certain kind of success it is as much an exception as a business that is falling towards extinction. It asks that if there are death spirals there might also be positive spirals. Yet the bulk of business study is on the mistakes and failures of organizations and on avoiding mistakes. While it is important to avoid making mistakes that can kill your organization, does it seem likely that one can learn success only by avoiding failure? Of course not.
This book and the papers it contains are laying a foundation for scholarly study of the positive deviance of successful organizations in order to develop principles for organizations to implement to achieve success in all aspects of its organizational being. It really isn't just about the money. Although the organization has to have financial success to exist, it is also about the people who make up the organization. One of the core principles of this book is that an organization that is concerned about virtuousness is going to be more successful and more resilient than one that ignores these principles.
There are 23 fine papers in here and I am sure that some will resonate with you more than others. However, I encourage you to read it. I believe you can begin to view your organization and your participation in it differently. You can begin to see what Professors Cameron, Quinn, Dutton and others are pointing us towards. And after you get past the wrong notion that they are talking about something too squishy to be real business, you begin to relate the questions they are asking to the times in your life when you were in that state of positive deviance. You will be able to relate the principles of virtue to what went well and things will seem more clear about why things go right.
While the book is really laying out possible areas of study for other scholars of organizational behavior to pursue, it also is quite useful for businesspeople and other organizational participants to read and think through the ideas of positive deviance. And while the upward spirals did have components of financial success, that alone will not last. It won't last without the people and people cannot perform well over extended periods of time without trust, gratitude, and more of the virtues that allow people to bond and put forward exceptional performance. The goal of this area of study is to develop theories and measures that will allow organizations to understand how these kinds of principles are part of their core ability to succeed.
The notes for the various chapters also provide sources for further reading and study.
Recommended.
10 of 10 people found the following review to be helpful:
Positive Organizational Scholarship, August 3, 2005
By Larry E. Cole
This is definitely a scholarly book. It's a difficult read for the lay audience, but if you are willing to "weave your way through an academic writing style," the information is excellent.
2 of 2 people found the following review to be helpful:
Excellent collection of authors, July 1, 2009
By J. Schmalbach
If you're looking for a great overview of the field of positive organizational psychology, this is it. I purchased this book to use for my master's thesis and was very happy I did. The content is excellent and easy to read, with extensive use of citations. Highly recommended.
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