Yerace, Felix
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Publication Positive Psychology and Being a Good Teammate: How Justice Character Strengths lead to Authentic, Courageous, and Exemplary Followership, Positive Institutions, Flourishing, and Heroic Upstanders for Positive Citizenship and Stewardship for the Common Good(2020-01-01) Yerace, Felix JIncreasing, organizations and society are moving away from top-down leader-centric approaches, and leadership, management, and political studies are increasingly focusing on followership. This paper proposes a conceptualization of followership under the Justice Virtue in the Character Strengths (Peterson & Seligman, 2004) classification, using this to bridge the divide between followership in organizational and societal contexts, and linking multiple elements of positive psychology to followership theory. Identity formation, innovation, teaming, distributed and servant-leadership are also examined with a positive psychology lens. I argue at the conclusion the Justice Virtue should be the “Citizenship” virtue, as these elements are prerequisites for positive citizenship through organizational citizenship behavior and citizen empowerment and engagement in communities, and are necessary for enhancement of social capital (Putnam, 1995; 2000) and for the development of heroic (Zimbardo, 2007) upstanders (Power, 2013). To support followership, I argue these Character Strengths should be taught in citizenship and civics classes, and in service-learning and Positive Youth Development (PYD) contexts. While “followership” still has a negative connotation, this paper supports previous efforts to show followership is more vital than ever for the outcomes we desire and is the first to analyze followership in positive psychology. This paper also supports an expansion of looking at leadership and the positive institutions and civic engagement components of positive psychology, helping lead to “good teammates” who contribute through positive interventions for the “commons,” and the overall “common good” and success we aspire for in our organizations and flourishing in our communities.Publication Developing Civility and Connection in Midland, Michigan(2020-05-07) Johnson, Robin Litster; Corcoran, Elizabeth Fay; Yerace, Felix; Satterfield, Caitlin; Chan, HillaryGrowing loneliness and incivility are on the rise across America. In Midland, Michigan, civic leaders desire to further infuse positive psychology into their community by enhancing positive citizenship through civil discourse and connection. They have identified this need after instances in their community where citizens have engaged in discourteous and unproductive speech. Informed by current psychological research, our team proposes improving civil discourse and increasing positive connections in Midland through holding community discussions using a Communication and Connections Discussion Guide. Community leaders will be trained as facilitators to lead discussions using the Discussion Guide with various groups of any type and size in Midland. We believe the citizens of Midland can and will learn to constructively engage with their fellow citizens for enhanced communities and a better future. We have every confidence that Midland leaders will persist until every sector in the community has been illuminated with the message of hope, warm communication, and strong connections offered by these principles and practices of well-being.