Sara Frost successfully defended her dissertation on developing and validating scales to measure workplace optimism. Her research included revising an existing Optimism Profile scale and developing new Optimistic Leadership and Organizational Optimism scales. Through surveys and focus groups with over 600 participants, she validated these scales and found they reliably measure factors like empowered connection, joyful engagement, and organizational celebrations. Her research demonstrated the influence of personal and organizational optimism on employee engagement and burnout. Her validated scales can now be used to assess and train optimism in organizations.

1. Dissertation Defense submitted by:
Sara Frost
Committee Chair: Mitch Kusy, Ph
D
Committee Member: Carol Baron, Ph
D
Committee Member: Amy Climer, Ph
D
February 2021
Optimism at Work:
Developing & Validating Scales
to Measure Workplace Optimism

2. Agenda:
• Purpose
• Literature Review
• Methodology
• Findings
• Leading Change

3. Why do we care about creating
an optimistic workplace?
What is an optimistic
workplace anyway?
How do we measure
optimism at work?
What did we
fi
nd out about
optimism at work?
What’s next?

4. Purpose

5. Let’s start
with Why Half Water
Half Air

6. Copyright Life is Good Company 2020

8. Literature
Review

9. Optimistic Leadership
Key Constructs
Empowerement
Joy
Connection
Engagement
Optimism

10. Existing Measures
• Optimism and Pessimism Scale
• Attributional Style Questionnaire
• Expanded Attributional Style Questionnaire
• Workplace Explanations Survey
• The Life Orientation Test Revised
• Maslach Burnout Inventory
• Optimism Profile

11. Methodology

12. • Revise & Validate the Optimism Profile
• Develop & Validate Scales for Measuring
• Optimistic Leadership and
• Organizational Optimism
• Validate two Existing Scales
• Explore the influence of optimism at work
• Pilot the new scales
Goals

13. Phase 1
Measures
Life Orientation Test – Revised
Maslach Burnout Inventory
General Survey
Optimism Profile
Optimistic Leadership
Organizational Optimism
Demographic Questions
Sampling
Purposive - personal, professional, and academic
networks
Analyses
Descriptive statistics, Exploratory/Con
fi
rmatory Factor,
Correlational, and Regression
n = 697

14. Phase 2
Phase 2: Approach
Pilot survey
20 individuals
Focus Group
5 individuals
• Life Orientation Test – Revised
• Optimism Profile
• Optimistic Leadership Scale
• Organizational OptiMeasure
• Demographic Items
• Focus Group Discussion

15. • Connection with Life is Good Playmakers
• Covid-19
✦ Job Loss
✦ Reduced Hours
✦ Shifting definitions
• Familiarity with Optimism
• Missing Item
Limitations

16. Findings

17. Position & Age
Demographics
76.6%
23.4%
Entry Level and Junior Level
Mid-Level or Above
8%
44.3% 34.1%
12.2%
1.1%
18 to 24 25 to 34
35 to 49 50 to 64
65+
52.3%
of respondents
were 50 years
of age or older
Mean response
for position was
55.6
indicating more
mid-level position
respondents
Response Insights:
Position Level Age

18. QUESTION 1:
What factors emerged
from the Optimism Pro
fi
le?

19. Optimism Profile: Emergent Factors

20. Optimism Profile: Emergent Factors

21. Optimism Profile: Emergent Factors

22. Optimism Profile: Emergent Factors

23. QUESTION 2:
What factors emerge from
the items designed to measure
optimistic leadership?

24. The Optimistic Leadership Scale

25. QUESTION 3:
What factors emerge from the items
designed to measure organizational
optimism?

26. The Organizational OptiMeasure

27. QUESTION 4:
Are the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General
Survey and Life Orientation Test-Revised
validated with this study’s sample, and do
these instruments o
ff
er con
fi
rmatory and
discriminatory validation for the Optimism
Pro
fi
le?

28. Life Orientation
Test - Revised
CMIN/DF = 1.381, CFI = .998, RMSEA = .023

29. Maslach Burnout
Inventory - General Survey
CMIN/DF = 1.602
CFI = .937
RMSEA = .078

30. Discriminant Analysis
Highest
correlation was between
Joyful Engagement and
Cynicism (-0.547, p < .01)
Lowest
correlation was between
Joyful Engagement and
Pessimism (-0.279, p < .01)
Correlations
Empowered
Connection
Joyful
Engagement
Overall
Score
MBI-GS
Cynicism
-.363** -.547** -.441**
MBI-GS
Exhaustion
-.348** -.417** -.374**
MBI-GS
Personal E
ffi
cacy
.311** .421** .373**
LOT-R
Optimism
.336** .334** .349**
LOT-R
Pessimism
-.309** .-279** -.310**
Maslach Burnout Inventory - General Survey (MBI-GS)
Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R)
**p < .01

31. QUESTION 5:
Do the Optimism Pro
fi
le factors in
fl
uence
Organizational OptiMeasure scores?

32. Regression Analysis with
the Optimism Profile
Run Independent Variable Dependent Variable
Run 1
Position Level
Overall Optimism Pro
fi
le
Organizational OptiMeasure
Run 2
Position Level
Empowered Connection
Organizational OptiMeasure
Run 3
Position Level
Joyful Engagement
Organizational OptiMeasure
Runs 4,5,6 included Celebrations, Resources, and Friendships

33. The Influence of Personal Experience of
Optimism at Work on Organizational Optimism
of the Organizational
OptiMeasure was in
fl
uenced
by the Overall Optimism
Pro
fi
le
40.6%
of the Organizational
OptiMeasure was in
fl
uenced
by Joyful Engagement
28.2%
of the Organizational Opti-
Measure was in
fl
uenced by
Empowered Connection and
Position Level
41.9% Casual Workplace
Friendships
NEGATIVELY
impacted Organizational
Optimeasure
Celebrations
and Resources
POSITIVELY
in
fl
uenced Organizational
OptiMeasure

34. QUESTION 6:
Do the Life Orientation Test-Revised
factors predict the Optimism Pro
fi
le?

35. Regression Analysis with
the Optimism Profile
Run Independent Variable Dependent Variable
Run 1
Age, Position Level
Life Orientation Test - Revised
Optimism and Pessimism
Overall Optimism Pro
fi
le
Run 2
Age, Position Level
Life Orientation Test - Revised
Optimism and Pessimism
Empowered Connection
Run 3
Age, Position Level
Life Orientation Test - Revised
Optimism and Pessimism
Joyful Engagement

36. The Influence of Dispositional Optimism on
Personal Experience of Optimism at Work
of the Overall
Optimism Pro
fi
le
variable was
in
fl
uenced by
Optimism
15.8% 15.6% 13.8%
of Empowered
Connection was
in
fl
uenced by
Position Level and
Optimism
of Joyful
Engagement was
in
fl
uenced by
Position Level and
Optimism

37. QUESTION 7:
Do the results from the factor-validated
scales align with the participants’
perceptions of their organization?

38. Pilot Test Findings
Component
Phase 1
Participants
Phase 2
Participants
%
di
ff
erence
Life Orientation Test - Revised
Combined Score
3.90 4.05 3.0
Optimism Pro
fi
le
Joyful Engagement
3.77 4.84 17.8
Optimism Pro
fi
le
Empowered Connection
4.41 4.96 9.2
Optimistic
Leadership
4.06 5.01 15.8
Organizational
OptiMeasure
3.01 4.99 33.0

39. Focus Group Discussion

40. The four elements
of an optimistic workplace
The Frost Optimistic Workplace Model

41. Leading
Change

42. What’s Next?
• Explore additional items and related factors
• Evaluate workplace optimism training
• Examine relationships between factors
• Explore influence of workplace optimism
Future Research

43. What’s Next?
• Assess optimism at work
• Create opportunities for
✦ Empowered Connection
✦ Joyful Engagement
• Train optimistic leaders
Future Practice

44. Thank you to everyone
who has been part of my
journey to help me to
fi
nd the beauty and
power of optimism.

45. Thank you to everyone
who has been part of my
journey to help me to
fi
nd
the beauty and
power of optimism.

46. Questions?