Book of Abstracts [Unofficial – Accepted Presentation, Abstract Submission Ongoing]

Positive organizational psychology promotes strengths use as a way to increase human well-being, optimal functioning, and flourishing. However, a strengths-based approach at work emphasizes only developing one's competencies (strengths) and omits improving one's incompetence (deficits). The alternative Strengths Use and Deficit COrrection (SUDCO) model (van Woerkom et al., 2016) proposes working on employee's strengths and deficits simultaneously. Such an approach might help employees to reach their full potential at work. Nevertheless, prior research mainly focused on strengths use and did not analyze deficit correction. Moreover, despite the broad knowledge of the positive individual and organizational outcomes of strengths use, little is known about its potential antecedents, including temperamental, personality, and motivational predictors. Thus, we conducted two correlational studies that examined the predictive role of chosen temperamental, personality, and motivational factors with regard to both strengths use and deficit correction at work. In Study 1 (N = 446), we examined whether `dark' personality traits (i.e., grandiose and vulnerable narcissism) and motivational aspects (i.e., regulatory focus at work) predict strengths use and deficit correction. In Study 2 (N = 129), we investigated the role of temperamental characteristics (i.e., reward and punishment sensitivity) in predicting strengths use and deficit correction. Both research demonstrated that distinct temperamental, personality, and motivational factors predicted strengths use and deficit correction. These findings suggest that strengths use and deficit correction have distinct nomological networks, which might indicate that enhancing both forms of organizational behavior requires specific organizational interventions.