Purpose With growing stress at work, the need for scholars to focus on humanizing organizations is pressing. Scholars agree five factors lead to humanizing organizations. This study dwells upon one factor – employee strengths at work (ESAW) – problematizes, identifies the gap in its conceptualization, deploys critical social systems theory and reconceptualizes the construct of ESAW by taking key contextual factors into consideration. Thereafter, this study aims to develop a conceptual model and makes propositions related to the mediating effects of ESAW on the association of leadership style and employee performance. Design/methodology/approach Aimed at contributing to humanizing organizations, this conceptual study problematizes the construct of competency and the trait-based conceptualization of strengths in identifying gaps in the construct of competency for humanizing organizations. Next, the study deploys the technique of construct mixology for evolving the new construct of ESAW. To empirically test ESAW in the field, the authors deploy the critical social systems theory and develop a conceptual model. Further, drawing upon the conceptual model and the extant literature, the authors develop many propositions for enabling future research. Findings The study develops a new construct of ESAW that holds the promise of contributing to humanizing organizations. By embedding the current trait-based conceptualization of employee strengths to the context of the organization, the new five-factor construct of ESAW is indigenous to the field of organization science, hence, has a higher relevance. The study develops a conceptual model and makes propositions for empirically testing the new construct in the field that future researchers may focus upon. Research limitations/implications There is a compelling need for humanizing organizations. This conceptual study attempts to bring back the focus of researchers on humanizing organizations, within the framework of the market-driven economy. The new construct of ESAW has huge potential for theory-building and empirical testing. Practical implications Deployment of ESAW will contribute to humanizing organizations. The construct of ESAW is relevant to practice as it has evolved from the domain of organization science, unlike the earlier trait-based conceptualization of strength that emerged in personality psychology. Practitioners can deploy the construct of ESAW and achieve the two seemingly conflicting objectives of enabling employee well-being while also ensuring superior performance. Social implications Any contribution toward humanizing organizations forebodes increasing the social capital and the personal well-being of employees. If employees are happy at work, their productivity increases. As per the broaden and build theory of Fredrickson, higher well-being and productivity at work creates a spiral of positivity that transcends the working life of an employee. Hence, the study has huge social implications at times when the social fabric is stretched because of multiple demands on an employee. Originality/value Constructs developed in other fields and adopted in organization science have less relevance than those evolved in the domain of organization science. Past deficient conceptualization and practices persist unless scholars logically challenge it an alternative and improved conceptualization provided. The new construct of ESAW uses the method of construct mixology after unravelling the assumptions that impedes humanizing organizations.

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Purpose There is a compelling need for developing constructs in management science for higher relevance rather than adapting constructs developed in other domains and applying them in organizations. An inquiry in the relevance of the construct of strength developed in personality psychology and applied to organizations is compelling, as deploying strengths leads to humanizing organizations. With growing disengagement of employees at work, this study makes a significant contribution by conceptualizing strengths in the context of organizations and carrying out two studies on independent samples for developing a psychometrically validated 14-item scale for measuring it. Design/methodology/approach The study has two phases. The first phase is conceptual in nature where the authors deploy the social systems theory and use recent empirical research evidence in conceptualizing the construct of employee strengths at work (ESAW). In the second phase, the author carry out two studies on independent samples for ascertaining the factor structure by carrying out EFA and then confirming it by doing a confirmatory factor analysis. Findings The construct of ESAW, relevant for management science, has five factors: potential deployment, person-jot fit, managerial sensitivity, prompt assimilation and joy. The psychometrically validated scale for measuring ESAW developed in this study has 14 items. Because the construct incorporates key contextual factors, it is more relevant to organizational science and contributes to humanizing organizations. Originality/value This study evolves the construct of ESAW from a predominantly trait-based approach to a conceptualization that accounts for the contextual factors, essential for enabling strengths of employees to manifest. The study contributes to advancing literature that holds promise for humanizing organizations – a pressing need because of the growing instances of employee disengagement. The author develop a 14-item psychometrically validated scale for measuring ESAW that the practitioners can use in first assessing current levels of employee strengths’ deployment and thereafter intervening for increasing the deployment of their strengths for enabling higher well-being and superior performance.

PurposeUtilizing employee strengths contributes to humanizing organizations. However, the current concept of strengths has evolved from the domain of social work, advanced by personality and positive psychologists and adopted in management. The trait-like conceptualization of strengths conceptualized by psychologists is of lesser relevance to organizations as it discounts the significance of contextual factors for manifesting employee strengths. This study traces the evolution of strengths conceptualization, identifies gaps in its relevance to organizations, employs the concept relation method for developing a conceptualization of employee strengths at work and proposes a framework for management development that predicts improved employee engagement and performance.Design/methodology/approachThe study utilizes the Cochrane method for carrying out a systematic conceptual review and shortlists 19 articles from an initial selection of 430 articles. Drawing insights from the 19 reviewed studies, the study deploys the concept relation method to conceptualize the concept of employees' strengths at work (ESAW) that has a higher relevance for management and organizational behavior. Thereafter, utilizing ESAW, the study proposes a conceptual framework that has huge implications for improving employee engagement and performance by carrying out effective management development. The conceptual framework additionally serves as a springboard for future empirical research.FindingsThe conceptualization of human strengths in extant literature favors a trait-based conceptualization advanced by personality psychologists. Concepts borrowed from other domains have lesser relevance than those indigenously developed in the field of management. Incorporating the recent empirical evidence highlighting the importance of factoring in key contextual attributes for the strengths to manifest at work, this study develops a new higher-order construct of ESAW that factors in personal as well as situational variables. Thereafter, the study suggests a conceptual framework for effectively carrying out management development by utilizing the new construct of ESAW.Practical implicationsDeployment of ESAW will contribute to humanize organizations, improve employee engagement and performance. The construct of ESAW is relevant to practice as it has evolved from the domain of organization science, unlike the earlier trait-based conceptualization of strength that emerged in personality psychology. The conceptual framework proposed in the study can be utilized by practitioners for carrying out effective management development.Social implicationsAny contribution to increasing employee engagement predicts increasing social capital. If employees are happy at work, their productivity increases. Furthermore, higher engagement and productivity at work creates a spiral of positivity that transcends the working life of an employee. Hence, the study has huge social implications at times when the social fabric is stretched due to multiple demands on an employee.Originality/valueConstructs developed in other fields and adopted in management have less relevance than those evolved indigenously in the domain of management. The systematic conceptual review of the concept of human strengths reveals a gap in its relevance to organizations. The study develops a new concept of ESAW that has higher relevance for organizational behavior and holds the promise of humanizing organizations. The next originality of the study lies in proposing a conceptual framework for carrying out effective management development that predicts higher employee engagement and performance. The methodological originality lies in utilizing the systematic conceptual review for developing a new concept.

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Purpose Practitioners’ literature on coaching has swelled as compared to the theoretical grounding and academic research on coaching, thereby questioning if coaching is a profession. Furthermore, the increasing investments in coaching seek a higher return on investments. These trends call for a deeper theoretical grounding of coaching and evolving innovative approaches that increase the effectiveness of coaching. Against this backdrop, this study aims to describe a process a coach can adopt for objectively and systemically understanding the context of the coachee at multiple levels (organizational, teams/dyadic and intrapersonal) to develop and execute an effective coaching intervention. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a radical humanistic paradigm, deploys ecosystems theory, develops a conceptual model and uses it for action researching in an Indian manufacturing organization. This study uses a non-experimental purposive sampling and makes use of a cross-sectional survey method for gathering data by using validated instruments. Guided by the ecosystems theory, data is gathered at three levels of nested systems – the microsystem (intrapersonal and direct reports of coachee), mesosystem (peers and manager of coachee) and the macrosystem (cultural) levels. Analysis of data helps the coach to design and execute an effective coaching intervention at multiple levels – intrapersonal, dyadic and organizational. Findings This study provides an alternative approach to systemically diagnose at three levels of the environment (microsystem, mesosystem and macrosystem) and uses validated instruments for assessing the areas of opportunity and concerns for carrying effective coaching. The use of employee strengths that conceives strengths as a dynamic interaction of personal attributes and contextual factors instead of the trait-based conceptualizations in extant literature leads to rich data for designing effective coaching interventions. Using the ecosystems theory for carrying out systemic coaching is an effective approach for professionalizing coaching and increasing the effectiveness of coaching. Originality/value The originality of this study lies in using the ecosystems theory for guiding the research, developing the conceptual model, collecting data by using validated instruments and in making use of data across multiple levels of systems (micro, meso and macro) for carrying out systemic coaching. The use of a new higher-order construct of employee strengths at work that conceives strengths as a dynamic interaction of personal traits and contextual factors is yet another originality of the research. Finally, this study identifies key systems variables and provides a proof of concept by executing a generalizable systemic coaching process in an organization.

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Leader development involves teaching communication skills, sharing, and the ability to motivate individuals through positive social influences. Leadership development helps potential leaders with the how and when of leading.