Zest and work

Abstract

SummaryZest is a positive trait reflecting a person's approach to life with anticipation, energy, and excitement. In the present study, 9803 currently employed adult respondents to an Internet site completed measures of dispositional zest, orientation to work as a calling, and satisfaction with work and life in general. Across all occupations, zest predicted the stance that work was a calling (r ¼ .39), as well as work satisfaction (r ¼ .46) and general life satisfaction (r ¼ .53). Zest deserves further attention from organizational scholars, especially how it can be encouraged in the workplace.

The emerging positive agenda in organizations: greater than a trickle, but not yet a deluge

“…Taken together, these articles demonstrate several important themes and directions for additional research. The first article, by Peterson, Park, Hall, and Seligman (2009) meaningfully extends Peterson and Seligman's (2004) work on character strengths to organizational settings. Focusing on the character strength of zest, which is defined as the habitual approach to life with anticipation and energy, Peterson et al (2009) found that zest was associated with work as a calling, work satisfaction, and general life satisfaction using a sample of 9803 employed respondents to the VIA internet site.…”

“…Of particular relevance to our next article is the character strength of hope. Preliminary analyses by Peterson et al (2009) indicate that a number of their character strengths, such as hope, demonstrate the trait-like quality of a high test-retest correlation, in this case over a 4-month period. Alternatively, based upon the work of Snyder (2000) and Luthans et al (Luthans, Avolio, Avey, & Norman, 2007;Luthans & Youssef, 2007), hope has also been considered as a state.…”

Follow your heart or your head? A longitudinal study of the facilitating role of calling and ability in the pursuit of a challenging career.

“…Recent research is also establishing the nomological network around this relatively new construct. This largely cross-sectional research Follow Your Heart 6 has primarily documented positive correlations between calling and subjective constructs such as life and job satisfaction (Duffy, Bott, Allan, Torrey, & Dik, 2012;Peterson, Park, Hall, & Seligman, 2009;Wrzesniewski, McCauley, Rozin, & Schwartz, 1997), intrinsic motivation, work engagement, job involvement (Dobrow & Tosti-Kharas, 2011), zest (Peterson et al, 2009), and well-being (Duffy, Manuel, Borges, & Bott, 2011).…”

Calling and career preparation: Investigating developmental patterns and temporal precedence

“…People with a sense of calling are assumed to express their strengths through their calling and as such should possess high confidence in their ability to master career-related tasks (Hall & Chandler, 2005). Similarly, individuals with a sense of calling are enacting their "true selves" in the work role, which entails expressing their core strengths (Peterson, Park, Hall, & Seligman, 2009). Therefore, although the presence of a calling may not directly translate into a specific level of a person"s objective ability (Dobrow, in press), we could assume that a calling can promote a sense of career self-efficacy.…”