Understanding Psychological Competencies: Conceptualization and Measurement of Psychological Capital at Various Levels

This study addresses the longstanding concern of how to identify and evaluate individuals’ <p> psychological strengths. While much research has concerned itself with identifying <p> psychological weaknesses of organizational employees, an emergent stream of literature in the <p> human resource management literature has begun to pay attention to the psychological capital of <p> human resources. Psychological capital and other competing views righteously build on positive <p> psychology to address the developmental strengths of individuals. We elaborate further on the <p> concept of psychological capital by conceptually proposing an alternative view. Our view is <p> more elaborate and suggests a three dimensional approach to psychological strengths, taking into <p> consideration the approach-belief subsystem of individuals, the monitoring-creating-executing <p> subsystem, and the self-regulating subsystem. We confirm these three dimensions, which <p> together contain 16 psychological competencies through a survey instrument in a Scandinavian <p> manufacturing firm in China. The results are discussed and implications for future research are <p> proposed.