Abstract: Thriving at work is a psychological state in which individuals experience both a sense of vitality and a sense of learning at work. Thriving is also a gauge of individual growth and forward progress. The social embedded model of thriving and the integrative model of human growth provide theoretical frameworks, embody the mechanisms of self-determination and self-adaptation, and unveil the important antecedents and outcomes of thriving. The antecedents include the contextual features and work resources, and the outcomes include employee’s performance, satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior, health, innovation, and adaptive behaviors. Research on thriving at work can contribute to organizational and human sustainability, but this field is quite new and needs enriching and refining both theoretically and empirically.

Key words: thriving, social embeddedness, self-determination, self-adaptation, positive psychology