Obvious or Evasive? The Ambiguous Case of Defining Individual Positivity at Work: A Selective Conceptual Review and Qualitative Investigation

Despite the proliferation of positivity research in Positive Psychology and Positive Organizational Scholarship over the past 25 years, conceptual ambiguity and fragmentation persist regarding what constitutes individual positivity at work, posing a risk to theoretical and empirical progress. We adopt an integrative approach, complementing a selective review of core positivity constructs representing individual positivity in Positive Psychology and Positive Organizational Scholarship with lay perspectives from semi-structured interviews, incorporating image- and vignette-based discussions, with an international group of 19 working professionals. We identify concepts of individual positivity from data and group them along modal (cognitive, affective, behavioral) and referential (the self, others, and the environment) dimensions. We then map existing positivity constructs onto this framework, revealing a skew toward self-centric and limited attention to behavioral manifestations of individual positivity, and compare theoretical meanings of 'positive' with those evident in lay perspectives. Finally, we position the data-derived concepts within the PP, POS, and broader literatures, extending current frameworks with novel concepts and adding nuance to established ones. Our typology of individual positivity provides a systematic framework for organizing the construct’s conceptual diversity, challenging the reduction of positivity to intrapersonal single-faceted phenomena. While treating positivity as an umbrella construct may serve both theoretical integration and practitioner needs, we propose explicitly specifying and justifying the conceptualization and operationalization of particular facets in given contexts and samples. Our typology offers a practical tool for assessing and developing individual positivity across its various manifestations, emphasizing specific competencies and behaviors.