Author Description

Positive environment in the workplace is usually assumed to be beneficial to employee morale, but not always a necessity for achieving the firm's strategic goals. Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) is a field of study that focuses on how leaders and organizations can achieve extraordinary results while focusing on positive deviance. In April 2004, Prudential Financial acquired CIGNA's full-service retirement business and various challenges on integrating the two firms became present. the challenges included aligning the cultural aspects of the organizations. This case describes how senior management led the merger of Prudential and CIGNA while implementing various POS practices throughout the organization in hopes of creating a successful culture for the staff, compelling results for the clients, and a strong value for the shareholders.