Workplace
Workplace Happiness
Since most people spend the majority of their waking hours in the workplace, this aspect of their lives undoubtedly affects overall happiness. It is clear from the following two tables that
- a.) In comparison to other activities, being at work is not something that makes people happy.
- b.) People do not enjoy spending time with their bosses, in comparison to others. Additionally, people would rather spend time with family and friends than with coworkers or clients.
However, there are certain factors that can help to make people as satisfied as they can be, given that they are at work. Industrial psychologists often refer to happiness with work as “job satisfaction,” which can be defined as an attitudinal variable that reflects the degree to which people like their jobs overall, as well as specific aspects of them (Spector 217).
HOW PEOPLE FEEL ABOUT THEIR JOBS
Job Facets: People tend to be much more satisfied with certain facets of their jobs than others. From highest to lowest, people are satisfied with: Nature of work, supervision, coworkers, benefits, communication, working conditions, promotion, pay (Spector 217).
Individualism vs. Collectivism
- Individualism is the extent to which people perceive themselves as autonomous, and place their own needs and interests above those of others. Collectivism is the opposite; it is the extent to which people feel interconnected with others and care deeply about the groups to which they belong. People from collectivist countries are more satisfied with their jobs (Spector, 219).
- According to Richard Layard,
The pursuit of individual self-interest is not a good formula for personal happiness. You will be happier if you also obtain happiness from the good fortunes of others. In fact the doctrine that your main aim must be self-advancement is a formula for producing anxiety...In the West we already have a society that is probably as happy as any there has ever been. But there is a danger that Me-First may pollute our way of life, now that divine punishment no longer provides the sanction for morality. If that happened, we should all be less happy. So we do need a clear philosophy. The obvious aim is the greatest happiness of all – each person counting for one. If we all really pursued that, we should all be less selfish, and we should all be happier. 13
- So, people in collectivist work environments should be happier with their jobs than people whose workplace emphasizes individualistic ideas.
Job Characteristics
High “job scope” leads to high job satisfaction. Job scope refers to the overall complexity of a job, and is a combination of the following five characteristics (Spector 224):
- Skill variety- How many skills do I need for this job?
- Task identity- Am I doing an entire job myself, or just pieces of the job?
- Task significance- How does my job impact others?
- Autonomy- Am I free to do my job as I see fit?
- Job feedback- Is it made clear to me that I am doing my job correctly?
Pay Equity
- Because people tend to compare themselves with others, satisfaction with pay is determined by equity with others in the same profession, not with the general amount of money itself (Spector 227).
- For example, talk show host Sally Jessy Raphael was vocal about being dissatisfied with her salary of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, knowing that Oprah made in the millions. Studies have shown that people in the same job are not happy if their salaries are not the same (Spector 227).
Personality
- Negative Affectivity: Some people are just never happy; they are predisposed to negativity (Spector 229). This carries over into job satisfaction.
- Locus of control: “Internals,” or people who feel that they have control over things, as opposed to luck, fate, and others, are happier with jobs than “externals” (Spector 230).
- Person-Job Fit: Some people have higher growth need strength than others; they desire more growth, autonomy, and achievement at work. Employers should assess the growth need strength of each employee in order to tailor the job role to the individual (Spector 233).
Stress
- Stress at work is a major factor in decreasing job satisfaction. According to Thomas Wright, an expert on Organizational Behavior,
One of the central dysfunctional outcomes of stress is dissatisfaction with one's job. In recent years, job satisfaction has continued to decline. A 2003 study by the Conference Board reports that less than 49% of workers are satisfied with their jobs. This was a drop from 59% reported in 1995. What does it mean when more than half of workers are dissatisfied with their jobs? 14
- Layard expands on this idea, arguing that,
There is also the question of the pace of work. In order to improve performance, workers are under increasing pressure to achieve targets. This is leading to increased stress. For example in 1996 the Eurobarometer survey asked employed people in every country whether in the last 5 years there had been a “significant increase in the stress involved in your job”. Nearly 50% said Yes, it had increased, and under 10% said it had diminished...Some might argue that this is the pace of work which people have chosen. But not all options are in practice available. For example US lawyers now work harder than they used to, and a survey of associates in US law firms showed that they would like to work shorter hours for less pay.8 But the problem of the lemon is at work again – the person who first proposes this is felt to show lack of commitment. And the partners in the firm are in fact using work hours as a test of other qualities which they cannot observe. 13
HOW TO BUILD A HAPPY WORKFORCE
- For economic reasons, job satisfaction, or happiness with one’s job, is very important because it affects job performance, absence, and turnover. It is important for individuals because it plays such a large role in life satisfaction, health, and overall well-being.
- A model of a company that promotes a happy workforce is The Container Store, which has ranked in the top three the past five years in Fortune magazine's “The 100 Best Companies to Work For.” 16
Sales people average over $36,000, among the highest pay scales in retail. Benefits are substantial. For example, the company makes a 100% match for an employee's 401(k), up to 4% of her or his pay. Domestic partners also receive benefits. But this is only a small part of the story. The deeper reason is TCS's culture of mutual respect. Ninety-four percent of the employees told Fortune that they felt they “made a difference” by working for the company. Ninety-eight percent said, “I think that TCS is a friendly place.” The reason? Ninety-seven percent stated that “people care about each other here.” Consequently they encourage their friends to apply. Over 40% of the company's new hires result from referrals made by existing employees. 16
Selection Approach
- Some research has shown that happiness and job satisfaction are hereditary, though there is debate over this notion. However, it has been established that personality and happiness are stable over time. In other words, people who are happy/unhappy at one point in time are very likely to feel the same way years later.
- Thus, employee happiness or job satisfaction is also thought to be fairly stable. This suggests that employers are at an advantage if they hire the happiest candidates possible, since those people are likely to be happy down the road.
- However, there is a major ethical issue involved with this hiring strategy. Refusing to hire less happy candidates may make them even more unhappy, which in turn would reduce their chances even further, of being hired later in life. So, while employers should take note of job candidates’ happiness, this should not be their only strategy to promote a happy workforce. 16
Situational Engineering
- Modify working conditions to suit employees as best as possible.
- Provide some kind of social support system so that employees can reduce stress.
- Adapt physical conditions, job role, job tasks, and/or interpersonal demands to each employee.
- Use family-friendly policies such as flextime and childcare programs to avoid the work-family conflict.
- Equitable pay; those who perform the same tasks should be paid the same. 16
Training
- Stress management training can help employees to be happier at work due to reduced stress.
- There are certain training strategies in which employees can proactively use self-monitoring of their personal perceptions to enhance positive mood/emotions and discourage negative ones. One example is constructive self-talk, which is a conscious effort to change negative self-talk into positive, reinforcing self-talk.
- This strategy is often facilitated by what is called “learned optimism.” People can be trained to emphasize thought patterns that are positive and optimistic, and this comes in handy for employee interactions with co-workers and customers. Also, studies have shown that more optimistic workers are more productive at work.
SUMMARY: WHY IS WORKPLACE HAPPINESS SO IMPORTANT?
- How people feel when they are on the job has a huge impact on not only personal well-being, but also the welfare of the company.
- Bottom Line: Happy employees-->happy employers-->a happier society.
- Positive mood/emotions at work are correlated with higher job satisfaction, greater creativity, less turnover, and going the extra mile/doing more than the bare minimum.
- Negative mood/emotions are correlated with low job satisfaction, more absence and turnover, and counterproductive behavior (e.g. aggression toward coworkers, lateness, and purposely withholding effort). 16
