What is Psychological Capital?

Since the release of his book Psychological Capital in 2006, Fred Luthans has toured the globe lecturing on the idea of positive organizational behavior and applying the concepts of psychological capital on employee performance. But what is psychological capital exactly? Fred Luthans and Bruce J. Avolio discuss in their introduction to Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies’s special issue on psychological capital.

From the introduction:

This special issue on psychological capital (PsyCap) was stimulated by and a result of Fred’s Festschrift (organized by Bruce and Linda Hietbrink) held at the University of Nebraska last spring. For those not aware of such an event, Festschrift comes from the German Fest (celebration) and Schrift (writing) and is defined by Webster as a group of papers presented as a tribute to a scholar toward the end of his or her career. Wikipedia adds that the Festschrift papers are in the domain of the honored scholar and are authored by his former doctoral students and/or close colleagues but contain original research that leads to refined understanding and extends the boundaries of the scholar’s life contributions. Without exception, the refereed articles in this PsyCap special issue meet those criteria. All are authored by Fred’s (and Bruce’s) former doctoral students and/or close colleagues, report original research, and lead to the better understanding and extend the boundaries of PsyCap through the generation of new ideas and most importantly new questions to be examined by future research.