Scientific Evidence Matters

As a global Washington, DC based think tank, the POBI brings together top global scholars (POBI Fellows) to collaborate on the most pressing well-being and performance challenges.

In a VUCA environment, now more than ever, how we engage people within organizations is essential to our global well-being and performance. As a result, it is more important than ever that organizations and scholars cross the “knowing-doing” gap with evidence-based approaches that work (i.e. theory based, measurable, open to development and positive impact on desirable outcomes).

Many of us within organizations desire the ability to predict behaviors, especially under stress. While traditional models of human capital have focused on knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs), and others have focused on general happiness or positivity, POBI Scholars have remained relentlessly focused on a new form of capital known as Psychological Capital, or PsyCap.

Decades of empirical research from every continent around the globe (multiple industries/domains) demonstrate that PsyCap is open to development, and predictive of behaviors under stress, as well as well-being and performance.

As a resource, we often find that PsyCap is “who we are.” It explains how we think, and why we think and behave the way we do. Perhaps most importantly, because PsyCap is open to development, and is often untapped and underdeveloped, it can emerge in short evidence-based interventions that lead to significant advantages in the moment, but also in the longer term (12 months+).

Some of the global markets PsyCap scholars are engaged with include: