Authentic Happiness

By Jane Dutton

Corrosive work relationships are like black holes that swallow up energy that people need to do their jobs. In contrast, high-quality relationships generate and sustain energy, equipping people to do work and do it well. Grounded in solid research, this book uses energy as a measurement to describe the power of positive and negative connections in people's experience at work. Author Jane Dutton provides three pathways for turning negative connections into positive ones that create and sustain employee resilience and flexibility, facilitate the speed and quality of learning, and build individual commitment and cooperation. Through compelling and illustrative stories, Energize Your Workplace offers managers, executives, and human resource professionals the resources they need to build high-quality connections in the workplace.

By Ed Diener

The Collected Works of Ed Diener, in 3 volumes, present the major works of the leading research scientist studying happiness and well-being. The first volume presents the major theory and review papers of Ed Diener, giving a broad overview of findings in the field, and the theories of well-being. The second volume focuses on culture, citing findings that are mostly all derived from the Diener laboratory and his students. The third volume on measurement is the most applied and practical one because it discusses all the measures used, and presents new measures.

By Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Drawing on nearly one hundred interviews with exceptional people, from biologists and physicists, to politicians and business leaders, to poets and artists, as well as his thirty years of research on the subject, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi uses his famous flow theory to explore the creative process. He discusses such ideas as why creative individuals are often seen as selfish and arrogant, and why the "tortured genius" is largely a myth. Most important, he explains why creativity needs to be cultivated and is necessary for the future of our country, if not the world.

By David Cooperrider and Diana Whitney

Written by the originators and leaders of the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) movement itself, this short, practical guide offers an approach to organizational change based on the possibility of a more desirable future, experience with the whole system, and activities that signal ""something different is happening this time."" That difference systematically taps the potential of human beings to make themselves, their organizations, and their communities more adaptive and more effective. AI, a theory of collaborative change, erases the winner/loser paradigm in favor of coordinated actions and closer relationships that lead to solutions at once simpler and more effective.

By Alan Carr

Remediating deficits and managing disabilities has been a central preoccupation for clinical psychologists. Positive Psychology, in contrast, is concerned with the enhancement of happiness and well-being, involving the scientific study of the role of personal strengths and positive social systems in the promotion of optimal wellbeing. Alan Carr's Positive Psychology has become essential reading for anyone requiring a thorough and accessible introduction to the field.

By Kim Cameron, Jane Dutton, Robert Quinn

In helping establish a new field of study in the organizational sciences, POS, this book examines a variety of positive dynamics in businesses and organizations that give rise to extraordinary outcomes. Positive Organizational Scholarship does not adopt one particular theory or framework, but encompasses any phenomenon that leads to positive, nurturing results. This collection of essays, written by established senior scholars, explains why and how these commonsense prescriptions work.

By Marcus Buckingham

Research data show that most people do not come close to making full use of their assets at work. Go Put Your Strengths to Work aims to change that by kick-starting the “strengths revolution” that began with Buckingham’s earlier books. Through a six-step, six-week experience, Go Put Your Strengths to Work shows you how to seize control of your assets and rewrite your job description under the nose of your boss.

By Robert Biswas-Diener and Todd Kashdan

In The Upside of Your Dark Side, two pioneering researchers in the field of psychology show that while mindfulness, kindness, and positivity can take us far, they cannot take us all the way. Sometimes, they can even hold us back. Emotions such as anger, anxiety, guilt, and sadness might feel uncomfortable, but it turns out that they are also incredibly useful. The key lies in what the authors call “emotional, social, and mental agility,” the ability to access our full range of emotions and behavior—not just the “good” ones—in order to respond most effectively to whatever situation we might encounter.

By Tal Ben-Shahar

Applying cutting-edge research in the field of positive psychology, Ben-Shahar takes us off the impossible pursuit of perfection and directs us to the way to happiness, richness, and true fulfillment. He shows us the freedom derived from not trying to do it all right all the time and the real lessons that failure and painful emotions can teach us.

by Martin E. P. Seligman

In this national bestseller, Martin E.P. Seligman shows you how to chart a new approach to living with "flexible optimism."