26th July 2010 - Does happiness at work matter?
Happiness isn’t high on employers' list of priorities at the moment, and it probably doesn’t feature much for those employees still dealing with the consequences of the recession. Across the world, employment security is back with a bang as employees prioritise keeping their job over job satisfaction or even increased pay. But new research published by Andrew Oswald at Warwick University has restarted the debate on the importance of happiness at work, and the findings should make employers sit up and listen.
Oswald and his team ran a series of experiments asking volunteers to undertake a number of tasks designed to mimic white collar work and quizzed them on their emotional wellbeing. Volunteers were paid a basic rate for attending the session, and a further sum for each correctly completed task. Some groups of volunteers were shown short comedy films before starting their work, others a neutral film and others no film at all.
The question Oswald set out to answer was, does happiness lead to better motivation or less careful behaviour? That is, if we are happy, do we give more at work, or does it distract us, leading to less accurate, and therefore less valuable, work?
There is already evidence that job satisfaction has a small positive correlation with worker productivity, and even that people who regularly experience positive emotions such as joy, satisfaction, contentment and enthusiasm are likely to be more successful in their career. But few economists or psychologists have looked explicitly at the whether happiness makes people more productive in a paid task i.e. in those circumstances most closely replicating the workplace.
The findings are significant; in Oswald’s words ‘happiness has a powerful causal effect on labor productivity’. Happier workers increased their output while the quality, or precision, of their work remained unchanged. The experiment was designed around performance related pay, but interestingly, whether or not volunteers were told the exact payment method, or simply told that pay would be performance related, the impact of their happiness on their productivity remained the same.
So does this matter? Up until now the idea of a happy and productive worker has often seemed like an illusion; something made up by overly optimistic management theorists. Debates about wellbeing and productivity have more often shown the tensions between the two; increased labour productivity achieved through work intensification which in turn has negative effects on worker wellbeing. It is important to note that this study is not longitudinal, so it is not able to show whether these effects can be maintained over time.
But it is important firstly in encouraging employers, managers and employees to think more carefully about the impact of emotions on work, and to consider employees as fully rounded human beings with important emotional as well as physical needs. Secondly, as many organisations in the public and private sector navigate their way through the uncertain economic environment, it suggests that investing in the workforce’s wellbeing is not only something for the good times, but may help employers deliver a much needed boost to their productivity just when then need it most.
Employers can only do so much; many of the factors affecting employee happiness will lie outside the workplace. But job quality and job design are well within employers’ scope, and have a powerful effect on employee wellbeing. But as Stephen Bevan, managing director at the Work Foundation, told Personnel Today recently, with a ready supply of labour employers need a good excuse to prioritise employee wellbeing:
"One problem we have is about declining job quality. In Britain, workers find their jobs less interesting and less fulfilling than 10 years ago. Employers have been trying to do more with less for a while now. They are aware of the principle of ensuring that jobs are fulfilling, but find it hard to find a business case for it. They are paying less attention to keeping people happy, because, in the current climate, if someone leaves, there will be another employee to take their place."
Oswald’s research may confirm what enlightened managers and employees already know; that happy workers are good workers, and employers intent on boosting productivity will do what they can to provide good jobs and working conditions, and supportive workplace relationships. But it may also encourage recession weary employers to move employee wellbeing up their list of priorities sooner rather than later.
Hannah JamesonFonte: http://www.ipa-involve.com/news/viewpoint-does-happiness-at-work-matter/
IPA research manager
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