Advances in Positive Organizational Psychology

About Advances in Positive Organizational Psychology

Overview

Advances in Positive Organizational Psychology is an international, peer-reviewed book series published by Emerald Publishing that examines cutting-edge theoretical and research issues in positive organizational psychology. The series carries the series ISSN 2046-410X and sits within Emerald's Organization Studies subject area. It is edited by Professor Arnold B. Bakker, professor and chair of the research group in Work and Organizational Psychology at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The series opened with its inaugural volume in 2013, published as an edited volume bringing together leading experts on the positive side of work and organizational life.

Positive organizational psychology (POP) is the study and application of optimal functioning in the workplace. Where much of traditional organizational psychology has concentrated on dysfunction — stress, burnout, conflict, turnover, and deviance — POP deliberately shifts the lens toward what goes right: the strengths, resources, and psychological capacities that allow employees and organizations to flourish. The series' stated editorial objective is to promote occupational well-being and flourishing, and to examine how positive phenomena — supportive contexts, personal resources, and constructive behaviors — can be used to deal with organizational demands and challenges. Like the broader positive psychology movement, POP emphasizes the need for focused theory building, rigorous research, and the effective application of positive traits, states, and behaviors of employees in organizations.

The series occupies a distinctive position in the literature because it was designed as a bridge. Its first volume explicitly set out to connect two related but distinct research traditions: positive organizational behavior (POB), which concentrates on measurable, developable psychological capacities of individuals such as hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism; and positive organizational scholarship (POS), which takes a broader organizational-level view of virtuousness, flourishing, and extraordinary performance. The volume includes contributions from both fields, along with theories and studies that combine a positive individual perspective with a positive organization perspective. That bridging ambition gives the series its intellectual identity: it is a forum where micro-level research on individual strengths meets macro-level thinking about thriving organizations.

For readers encountering the series for the first time, an important clarification is in order. Despite the word "Advances" in its title — a naming convention it shares with many review journals — this is a book series, not a journal. It does not publish issues on a fixed schedule, does not run an open article-submission pipeline, and does not carry a journal impact factor or charge article processing fees. Each installment is an edited volume on a unifying theme, with chapters commissioned from invited experts and subjected to peer review before publication. Chapters are assigned individual DOIs, and the volume as a whole is issued with print and electronic ISBNs alongside the series ISSN.

At a Glance

What "Positive Organizational Psychology" Means

To understand what the series publishes, it helps to understand the intellectual movement behind it. Positive psychology, as articulated by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi around the turn of the millennium, argued that psychology had become preoccupied almost exclusively with repairing the worst things in life — mental illness, dysfunction, and pathology — and proposed a complementary science of positive qualities: well-being, contentment, hope, optimism, flow, and happiness. Positive organizational psychology applies that reorientation to the workplace. Its purpose, in the series' own editorial framing, is to change the focus from preoccupation only with repairing the worst things in organizational life to also building positive qualities.

POP investigates positively oriented human resource strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed. That definition, which the series adopts, is deliberately operational: the constructs of interest are not vague aspirations but phenomena that researchers can define, measure with validated instruments, and cultivate through interventions. Work engagement — the positive, fulfilling state of vigor, dedication, and absorption in one's work — is the flagship example, and it is no coincidence that the series editor, Arnold Bakker, is among the most cited researchers in the world on engagement and on the Job Demands–Resources (JD–R) model that explains it.

The JD–R model, one of the most influential frameworks in contemporary occupational health psychology, proposes that every job has demands (aspects requiring sustained effort) and resources (aspects that help achieve goals, reduce demands, or stimulate growth). Resources — autonomy, feedback, social support, opportunities for development — fuel a motivational process leading to engagement, while chronic unmitigated demands fuel a health-impairment process leading to burnout. Much of the series' content orbits this logic: identifying the personal and job resources that enable flourishing, and testing interventions that build them.

The series also engages the companion tradition of positive organizational scholarship, associated especially with Kim Cameron and the University of Michigan's Center for Positive Organizations. POS emphasizes organizational-level virtuousness — compassion, forgiveness, gratitude, integrity — and asks what enables organizations to achieve positively deviant, extraordinary outcomes. The inaugural volume's opening chapters map this territory explicitly, with contributions on the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (how positive emotions expand thought–action repertoires and build enduring resources) and on self-determination theory's account of autonomy, competence, and relatedness at work.

Publication Format: How the Series Works

As an Emerald book series, Advances in Positive Organizational Psychology follows the edited-volume model. The series editor defines the intellectual direction and invites contributions from recognized experts; each chapter goes through peer review; and the assembled volume is published simultaneously in print and electronic form with its own ISBNs, while carrying the series ISSN 2046-410X and a volume-level DOI. On Emerald's Books Gateway platform, every chapter is individually addressable — each has its own DOI, citation metadata, abstract page, and download options — so the volume functions both as a coherent book and as a collection of citable scholarly units.

This format has strengths and limitations worth understanding. On the strength side, edited volumes allow deeper, more integrative treatment of a theme than a journal special issue typically permits, and the invitation model lets the editor assemble a genuinely authoritative lineup rather than depending on whatever happens to be submitted. The inaugural volume demonstrates this: its table of contents reads as a who's-who of the field, with chapters on the JD–R model, psychological capital, emotional intelligence, mindfulness, organizational socialization, work engagement, proactivity, job crafting, work–family enrichment, and methods for studying momentary well-being. On the limitation side, edited volumes appear less frequently than journal issues and do not offer an open submissions track; a researcher cannot simply submit a manuscript to the series the way they would to a journal. Contribution happens by invitation from the editor or, in some cases, by proposing a future volume to the publisher.

The series is distributed through Emerald's standard book channels: individual print volumes can be purchased, the electronic version is available through Emerald Insight, and the series is included in the Emerald Business, Management and Economics eBook Series Collection, through which subscribing institutions provide their users with access to the full text. Chapter-level tools on the platform include citation export in common reference-manager formats (RIS, EndNote, BibTeX, RefWorks, Mendeley, and others), permissions requests, and sharing functions.

The Inaugural Volume (2013)

The series launched in 2013 with Advances in Positive Organizational Psychology, Volume 1, edited by Arnold B. Bakker (print ISBN 978-1-78052-000-1; electronic ISBN 978-1-78052-001-8; DOI 10.1108/S2046-410X(2013)1). The volume's stated ambition was to build a bridge between positive organizational behavior and positive organizational scholarship — two fields that share an interest in the positive side of organizational life but have developed somewhat separately, one rooted in organizational behavior and measurable psychological capacities, the other in organization theory and virtuousness.

The chapter lineup, as catalogued by library records, illustrates the breadth of the field as the editor saw it. Stewart I. Donaldson and Maren Dollwet open with a framing chapter on taming the "waves and wild horses" of positive organizational psychology — an assessment of the movement's promise and its excesses. Kim S. Cameron contributes a chapter on advances in positive organizational scholarship, laying out the organizational-level perspective. Tanya Vacharkulksemsuk and Barbara L. Fredrickson apply the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions to organizations. Marylène Gagné and Maarten Vansteenkiste examine self-determination theory's contribution. Anja Van den Broeck and colleagues review the Job Demands–Resources model and suggest directions for future research. Anne Mäkikangas and colleagues ask whether personality matters for occupational well-being. Carolyn M. Youssef-Morgan and Fred Luthans develop psychological capital theory toward a positive holistic model. Oscar Ybarra and colleagues propose a more contextual, psychological, and dynamic model of emotional intelligence. Robert W. Barner and Charlotte P. Barner explore the role of mindfulness in fostering transformational learning in work settings. Jamie A. Gruman and Alan M. Saks address organizational socialization and newcomers' psychological capital and well-being. Simon L. Albrecht examines work engagement and the positive power of meaningful work. Chia-Huei Wu, Sharon K. Parker, and Uta K. Bindl unpack individual differences in employee proactivity. Amy Wrzesniewski and colleagues treat job crafting and the cultivation of positive meaning and identity in work. Tori L. Crain and Leslie B. Hammer systematically review work–family enrichment. And Wido G. M. Oerlemans and Arnold B. Bakker discuss methods for capturing momentary subjective well-being in the workplace.

Several themes cut across these chapters. One is the interplay of demands and resources: many contributions ask what personal resources (optimism, resilience, self-efficacy, mindfulness) and job resources (autonomy, feedback, support) enable employees to thrive under pressure. A second is proactivity: job crafting — employees actively reshaping their tasks, relationships, and perceptions of their work — recurs as a mechanism through which people create meaning and engagement for themselves rather than passively receiving whatever the job delivers. A third is the multi-level character of positivity: the volume deliberately juxtaposes individual-level constructs (psychological capital, personality, emotions) with organizational-level ones (virtuous practices, socialization systems), encouraging readers to think about how levels interact. A fourth is methodological seriousness: chapters on momentary assessment methods and systematic reviews signal that POP aspires to be a rigorous empirical science, not merely an inspirational literature.

The volume has been widely cited in the subsequent literature — its chapters are routinely referenced in papers on engagement, JD–R theory, job crafting, and positive organizational behavior — which is consistent with Emerald's description of the series as an established international forum. Citations to the volume appear across journals in management, applied psychology, and occupational health, indicating that the series reached its intended cross-disciplinary audience.

Editorial Leadership

The series editor, Professor Arnold B. Bakker, is professor and chair of the research group in Work and Organizational Psychology at the Institute of Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He also chairs the Center of Excellence for Positive Organizational Psychology at Erasmus, serves as secretary general of the Alliance for Organizational Psychology, and is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. His visiting appointments have included distinguished professorships in South Africa and adjunct roles in Hong Kong. From 2009 to 2013 he served as president of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology.

Bakker's scholarly profile is central to the series' credibility. He is one of the most cited organizational psychologists in the world and has appeared continuously since 2014 on citation-based lists of the world's most influential scientific minds. His research interests — work engagement, burnout, the Job Demands–Resources theory, job crafting, playful work design, flow, and the crossover of work-related emotions — map directly onto the series' subject matter. His articles have appeared in leading journals including the Journal of Applied Psychology, the Journal of Organizational Behavior, American Psychologist, and Current Directions in Psychological Science. He developed widely used applied instruments including the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and internet-based tools such as the Job Demands–Resources monitor and the Engagement App.

In addition to this series, Bakker is series editor of Current Issues in Work and Organizational Psychology published by Psychology Press, giving him an unusual dual vantage point across two major publishers' flagship organizational psychology series. For contributors and readers, the editor's standing functions as a quality signal: an invitation to contribute to the series comes from a scholar whose own work defines much of the field's core theory.

Peer Review and Publication Ethics

Emerald describes the series as peer-reviewed, and the Books Gateway platform exposes a peer-review workflow at the chapter level. In Emerald's book publishing practice, chapters in edited series are reviewed by independent experts before acceptance — the same fundamental quality control applied to journal articles, adapted to the commissioned-chapter format. Emerald is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) framework of expectations for scholarly publishing, and its archived series page links to formal author guidelines and a publication ethics statement, signaling that chapters are expected to meet standard requirements on originality, disclosure, and research integrity.

Because chapters are commissioned rather than openly submitted, the editorial gatekeeping happens in two stages: first, the series editor selects contributors with demonstrated expertise on the volume's theme; second, the resulting manuscripts pass through peer evaluation. This model concentrates responsibility on the editor's judgment but also makes the editor's scholarly reputation the primary guarantee of quality — a structure that works well when, as here, the editor is a field-defining researcher.

Access, Indexing, and Discovery

The series is available in both print and electronic formats. Individual volumes can be purchased in hardback, while the electronic versions are accessible through Emerald Insight for subscribing individuals and institutions. The series is included in the Emerald Business, Management and Economics eBook Series Collection, which many university libraries license, giving affiliated readers seamless full-text access to the chapters. Each chapter carries its own DOI under the series DOI prefix, making chapters straightforward to cite and to discover through Crossref, Google Scholar, and library discovery systems.

Readers should note what the series is not indexed in: as a book series rather than a journal, it does not appear in the Journal Citation Reports and has no Journal Impact Factor, CiteScore, or SJR quartile. This is normal for edited-volume series and is not a quality signal in either direction — it simply reflects the fact that citation metrics of that kind are journal-level instruments. The influence of the series is better judged by the citation performance of its chapters and by the standing of its contributors and editor, both of which are strong.

There is no open-access mandate attached to the series as a whole; volumes are published under Emerald's standard subscription-based book model, with pay-per-view options for individual chapters on the Emerald platform. Authors and editors interested in open-access arrangements would need to discuss options with the publisher directly, as terms vary by contract.

Who Should Read the Series

The primary audience is researchers and doctoral students in organizational behavior, work and organizational psychology, human resource management, and occupational health psychology. For them, the series functions as a state-of-the-art reference: a single volume that maps where a fast-moving field stands, which theories are ascendant, and where the open questions lie. The inaugural volume's systematic reviews — of the JD–R model, of work–family enrichment, of individual differences in well-being — are particularly useful as entry points for scholars designing new studies, because they consolidate dispersed findings and explicitly flag gaps.

A secondary audience includes reflective practitioners: HR leaders, organizational development consultants, and managers interested in evidence-based approaches to engagement, well-being, and positive culture. The series' emphasis on measurable, developable capacities makes it more actionable than much academic literature — a chapter on job crafting or psychological capital interventions can inform real program design. That said, the volumes are scholarly works written primarily for an academic readership; practitioners looking for how-to manuals will find the material rigorous but not prescriptive in a practitioner-book sense.

University instructors teaching advanced courses in organizational behavior, positive psychology, or occupational health will find the volumes useful as supplementary readings, since individual chapters are self-contained and citable. Libraries supporting business, management, psychology, or public-health programs are the natural institutional subscribers through the Emerald e-book collections.

Contributing to the Series

Because the series operates on a commissioned edited-volume model, there is no standing call for papers and no manuscript submission portal of the journal type. Chapters are invited by the series editor in connection with a planned volume's theme. Scholars who believe their work fits a forthcoming volume, or who wish to propose an entirely new volume on an emerging topic in positive organizational psychology, would approach the series editor or the publisher's commissioning team with a proposal. Emerald's standard book-proposal process asks prospective volume editors to outline the theme, the rationale, the proposed contributor list, and the competitive landscape — the same professional apparatus that governs its other book series.

For early-career researchers, the realistic pathway into the series is through visibility in the field: publishing strong work on engagement, resources, crafting, or related topics in the core journals, presenting at conferences such as those of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology or the Academy of Management, and building relationships with the scholars who anchor the field. Edited volumes reward scholars whose expertise is recognized; the invitation is the mechanism.

How to Cite the Series

The series itself is identified by its series ISSN, 2046-410X, which should be used in library cataloguing and series-level references. Individual volumes are cited by their ISBNs and volume DOI — for example, Volume 1 (2013): Bakker, A. B. (Ed.). (2013). Advances in Positive Organizational Psychology (Vol. 1). Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Print ISBN 978-1-78052-000-1; electronic ISBN 978-1-78052-001-8; https://doi.org/10.1108/S2046-410X(2013)1. Individual chapters have their own DOIs and should be cited at the chapter level, following the standard format for chapters in edited volumes: chapter authors, year, chapter title, "In A. B. Bakker (Ed.), Advances in Positive Organizational Psychology (Vol. 1, pp. xx–xx). Emerald. https://doi.org/…". Emerald's platform offers one-click citation export in RIS, EndNote, BibTeX, RefWorks, Mendeley, and other formats.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Advances in Positive Organizational Psychology a journal?

No. It is a peer-reviewed edited-volume book series published by Emerald Publishing. It does not publish issues on a regular schedule and does not operate an open article-submission system. Each installment is a themed edited volume with commissioned, peer-reviewed chapters.

What is the ISSN of the series?

The series ISSN is 2046-410X, as listed on Emerald's series information page and on the Books Gateway volume records.

Who edits the series?

The series editor is Professor Arnold B. Bakker, professor and chair of Work and Organizational Psychology at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and chair of that university's Center of Excellence for Positive Organizational Psychology.

Does the series have an impact factor?

No. Journal Impact Factors are assigned to journals, not book series, so the absence of an impact factor is a category fact rather than a quality judgment. The series' influence is reflected in the citation performance of its chapters and the standing of its contributors.

Are there article processing charges?

No. Chapters are commissioned by the editor rather than submitted through an APC-funded open-access pipeline, so the APC model does not apply.

How can I access the volumes?

Print volumes can be purchased individually; electronic access is available through Emerald Insight for subscribers, and the series is included in the Emerald Business, Management and Economics eBook Series Collection licensed by many university libraries. Individual chapters may also be available via pay-per-view on the Emerald platform.

Can I submit a chapter to the series?

Chapters are commissioned by invitation from the series editor in connection with planned volumes. There is no open submission portal. Scholars may contact the editor or Emerald's commissioning team to propose a volume or express interest in contributing to a forthcoming one.

What topics does the series cover?

The remit is the full span of positive organizational psychology: work engagement, the Job Demands–Resources model, psychological capital, job crafting, proactivity, mindfulness at work, positive emotions, self-determination, emotional intelligence, work–family enrichment, organizational socialization, and positive organizational scholarship — always with an emphasis on rigorous theory and evidence.

How many volumes have been published?

The publicly documented record centers on the inaugural 2013 volume; the publisher's series page presents it as an established, ongoing international series. Readers seeking the latest volume list should consult Emerald's Books Gateway series page, which is the authoritative catalogue.

Why the Series Matters

Organizational research spent most of the twentieth century studying what breaks people and organizations. The corrective offered by positive organizational psychology — studying what enables flourishing with equal rigor — needed an institutional home, a place where its theories could be consolidated, debated, and extended. Advances in Positive Organizational Psychology was conceived as that home: a series that treats the positive side of work not as a collection of feel-good slogans but as a cumulative science with theories to test, measures to validate, and interventions to evaluate. Its bridging of positive organizational behavior and positive organizational scholarship gave the young field a shared reference point, and its editor's standing gave it immediate credibility. For anyone seeking to understand how contemporary science thinks about thriving at work — engagement, resources, crafting, meaning — the series remains one of the most concentrated and authoritative entry points available.