Happiness at work

Happiness at work

Thanks to my new e-friend Senia for the following article about happiness at work which recently appeared in Positive Psychology News Daily…

Happiness at Work

Posted: 26 Oct 2007 02:33 AM CDT

By Senia Maymin

What can Positive Psychology say about being happy at work? No, really, what can Positive Psychology definitively say about happiness at work? For example:

Are there some people for whom happiness at work is easier?

Are there actual ways to increase happiness at work?

What if you”re too busy at work working to have time to worry about employee satisfaction and “all this feel-good stuff”?

Have there been actual hard-data research studies about techniques that can improve happiness at work?

Yesterday, a few of us authors from PositivePsychologyNews.com answered these questions on the one-hour radio show, “Be Happy, Dammit” with host and best-selling author Karen Salmansohn. Here is a summary of the main research we cited and the main implementation steps we believe the research suggests. Below, you”ll also find links to the recording of yesterday’s program.

What Does Research Show about Work and Happiness?

To improve team performance, at work say at least 3 positive comments for each negative comment. Margaret Greenberg, President of The Greenberg Group, an organizational effectiveness consulting and coaching practice, started us off with data on positive emotions at work. Greenberg related 1) Barbara Fredrickson’s theory of Broaden-and-Build: the broadening of scope, attention, and creativity, and the building of psychological capital that occur with positive emotions, and discussed 2) the Losada ratio of approximately 3:1 positive to negative comments found in high-performing teams.

To improve operational results, say “thank you” and use gratitude. David J. Pollay (Syndicated columnist with the North Star Writers Group, and President of TheMomentumProject.com, an international training and consulting organization) brought two studies about the results of gratitude – in restaurant tipping and in caregiver visits. Pollay described that researchers had found that waiters who write “Thank you” on the check receive a 11% higher tip than waiters who don”t. (Editor’s note: For more information on research about how to improve tips for waiters, you can read this thorough guide by Michael Lynn summarizing his research with Kirby Mynier – Mega Tips: Scientifically Tested Techniques to Increase Your Tips (pdf)) In another study, when case managers received thank-you notes, there was a 100% increase in repeat visits made by the case managers.

To hear each guest as he and she comes on the air, and to hear Margaret and David’s answer in detail, click here: Part 1 of the Interview.

To improve corporate strategical planning, emphasize the following three related components – the desire to move forward, the goal, and the pathways to get from the desire to the goal. Doug Turner (Vice President of HR for the Washington, DC division of Balfour Beatty Construction company) described these three components of Hope Theory. Turner further said that to improve individual planning, it’s the same process of implementing this framework of desire, goals, and pathway. Turner described why this research on hope theory was core to his beliefs about how to move a company forward, “Turnover in an organization really occurs because people lose hope.”

To become more productive, structure more self-discipline into some part of your work. I spoke about recent research in self-regulation, and how a long time ago, people didn”t even know whether self-regulation could be trained and increased, not to mention didn”t know that self-regulation works like a muscle. New research described by Roy Baumeister of Florida State University suggests that when a person grows self-regulation in one part of life, iot tends to seeps into other parts of life as well.

To hear Doug and Senia’s answers, and then to hear Margaret and Doug speak about how their business outlook has changes since learning positive psychology, click here: Part 2 of the Interview.

What Other Studies Did We Cite?

Strengths. I brought up how Gallup used strengths at Ann Taylor to create an additional nearly 5% in revenue if the results of the pilot study had been spread to the entire company.

Explanatory Style. Doug Turner cited explanatory style and self-talk, the stories that we tell ourselves, as one of his favorite concepts in Positive Psychology. Turner was especially encouraged by the idea that we can change our own self-talk.

See Work as a Calling. Margaret Greenberg spoke about Amy Wrzesniewski of Yale and her job-career-calling distinction, and Karen Salmansohn detailed how some of those jobs that were seen as a calling in the Wrzesnieski study were janitorial jobs, and may not have objectively been called a calling, so it really is in how people see things.

Loyalty is Dropping. A steady job and a decent salary are not keeping employees, especially the younger under-40 employees. David J. Pollay pointed out that Hudson Research Institute, Walker Information, and the Gallup Organization all point to the data that only about 25% of people are loyal to companies.

To hear David on business outlook, Senia on strengths, and Margaret and David on why companies should pay attention to these above reseach findings, click here: Part 3 of the Interview.

Finally, to hear Margaret, David, Doug, and Senia on specific actions to take given the above results and to hear David speak about The Law of the Garbage Truck(TM), click here: Part 4 of the Interview.