ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book looks across the contributions and two major ways that a positive relationships at work (PRW) lens adds value to organizational studies: through explanation and through extension. It uses these two major clusters of contributions to articulate how a focus on PRW is a high-prospect research frontier. The book offers three types of explanatory contributions: a better understanding of the theoretical mechanisms that explain work relationships; a more situationally embedded account of the nature and effects of work relationships; and a deepened investigation of generative dynamics involving PRW. It illustrates the possibilities for using related areas of inquiry to open new domains of theoretical exploration for the study of PRW. The book underlines how history creates a type of path dependence that either fosters or diminishes the possibility of PRW in the future.
