Better than Okay

by Jared

September 24, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Tagged: , ,

Positive Organizational Scholarship is the (unfortunately-named) use of the positive psychology frame in organizational psychology and management studies. The gist of these positive scholarships is that modernist disciplines concentrate on the difference between bad and normal and ignore the difference between normal and good.

I’ve managed to align my homework with my personal interests by writing a paper on organizational virtousness. The foundational paper of the concept contains an awesome table (that I’ve modified a bit): traditional scholarship studies the left and middle columns, positive scholarship studies the right column.

Negative deviance Normalcy Positive deviance
Individual:
Physiological ill healthy fit
Psychological insane sane happy
Organizational:
Effectiveness ineffective effective excellent
Efficiency inefficient efficient extraordinary
Quality error-prone reliable flawless
Revenues losses profits charitable
Ethics unethical ethical benevolent
Environmentalism destructive sustainable *
Social responsibility exploitative fair fostering
Morals evil moral good

* Is there a word for better-than-sustainable? When I asked Sara she said we don’t need a word for something imaginary. :-o

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  1. Don

    on September 24, 2009 at 3:29 pm

    There are lots of words for lots of things that don’t exist. If I was sufficiently motivated, I’d think of a quip about “God”.

  2. Jack

    on September 24, 2009 at 4:08 pm

    Agreed, Sara’s answer is bullshit — Unless she believes that English was delivered from On High with words for everything already rolled-in; you gotta respect people whose faith is stronger than their observable reality.

    Oh wait, no you don’t. I’d use “regenerative”.

  3. Michelle

    on September 24, 2009 at 9:39 pm

    So many things, ideas, concepts (arguably most)and the words we call them begin in the imagination. As humans I think we have an inherent desire to name these “imaginary” things so that we can share them and their meaning and discuss them thoughtfully. Maybe we don’t NEED these words, but an awful lot of people have come up with an awful lot of them to just dismiss it. My suggestion Harmonious.