The Additive Value of Positive Psychological Capital in Predicting Work Attitudes and Behaviors

TLDR

Employee positivity is widely regarded as important, yet the added predictive value of psychological capital over established positive traits remains unproven. The study investigates whether psychological capital provides incremental predictive power for work attitudes and behaviors beyond established positive traits. Psychological capital predicts higher extra‑role OCBs and lower cynicism, turnover intentions, and counterproductive behaviors, and accounts for unique variance beyond demographics, self‑evaluation, personality, and fit.

Abstract

Conventional wisdom and recent research have supported the importance of employee positivity. However, empirical analysis has not yet demonstrated potential added value of recently recognized psychological capital over the more established positive traits in predicting work attitudes and behaviors. This study found that psychological capital was positively related to extrarole organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) and negatively to organizational cynicism, intentions to quit, and counterproductive workplace behaviors. With one exception, psychological capital also predicted unique variance in these outcomes beyond demographics, self-evaluation, personality, and person—organization and person—job fit. The article concludes with implications for future research and practical application.