Positive Psychological Capital Development: A Field Study by the Solomon Four Group Design

Positive psychological capital has taken attention in the last decades considering today‟s work conditions and employee expectations in gaining competitive advantage. There is growing evidence that positive psychological capital has contribution on employees ‟ desired outcomes and provides a new perspective for understanding and potentially managing negative and stressful organizational circumstances. Recent theory and research have also proposed that positive psychological capital as a state-like construct is open to development and change. The immediate goal of the study is to design and implement a short positive psychological capital training program by following Luthans et al. (in their series of studies in 2006, 2008, & 2010) course of action and control its effectiveness by the Solomon four group experimental design which is one of the most powerful research designs available and rarely used especially for training programs. A sample of 156 management students participated to the training program. The findings of the current research will contribute to human resources development literature as well as to Solomon experimental design application