Are Happy Workers Productive

The growth of firms depends much on the productivity capacities of such firms. It is production that triggers the growth of economy in a company and in a nation. An employee is an important component in the enhancement of such growth. His values, attitudes and behaviour have a great influence in the way he performs duties at workplace. There is enough evidence that shows an employee well- being and satisfaction has a close link to his/ performance at a work place.

This paper intends to discuss and reflect upon the happy worker/ productive worker hypothesis. This is the assumption that those employees who are happy will consequently be those who produce more in an organization. Recently these have been the call of many scholars in organizational studies as they try to seek an understanding on the relationship between happiness and more productivity at a work place.

The work is divided into six parts, firstly, happiness is being defined, secondly happiness is linked to job satisfaction, third job satisfaction is associated with job performance, forth, aJob performance is related to work productivity, the theoretical foundation of happy worker / productive worker thesis and lastly, he logical correlation between happiness and productivity at work place and conclusion.

Defining Happiness The Philosophical Definition of Happiness Scholars in philosophical studies view happiness as contemplated into two things; a state of mind and a life worth living. In the first instance, happiness is a concern of a psychological issue – it is linked to certain state of mind, such states as life satisfaction, pleasure or emotional situations.

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Secondly philosophers have been viewing happiness as a kind of value, the prudential value or sometimes termed as well-being, welfare, utility or flourishing. In this sense happiness has to concern itself with what a human being gets as benefits, on what is good and what is better off in a human life. It is about being well in life, being fortune or being in an enviable condition. The idea to link happiness with well – being is well supported by Aristotle in his book the pursuit of happiness as he defines happiness as the supreme good that supplies the purpose and measures the value of the human activity and striving. It is for the sake of happiness that human beings do whatever that they do (Aristotle, 2002, 1102a3). Aristotle uses the Greek term eudemonia which translates into worth living life, which is according to him is the ultimate purpose of a human person.

Happiness has to involve three broad categories of a state affective stat, to include endorsement- states like joy or sadness, engagement states like flow or state of vitality and attunement – states like tranquillity, emotional expansiveness versus compression and confidence (Haybron 2008). Given the departures from commonsensical notions of being in a “good mood,” happiness is characterized in this proposal as “psychic affirmation,” or “psychic flourishing” in pronounced forms. Defining Happiness in Management science Practically, in management happiness is associated to some important phenomena, first happiness is taken to be a subjective experience – this means that to be happy is just a matter of one believing himself or herself as being happy or perceive himself or herself as being happy. In this sense happiness involves into a kind of judgement to the positives and negatives in one’s life.

Secondly happiness includes both the relative presence of positive emotions and the relative absence of negative emotions and finally, happiness is a global judgement as it refers to one’s life as a whole, it measures some sense of stability overtime. Taken together hence happiness in management can be taken as the judgement that one is experiencing a good deal of positive and relatively little negative emotion as at work place. it is important to note that the pursuit of happiness has been long considered as the fundamental motivation to a better and more productivity at work place. Happy people have higher intrinsic motivation to work, which raises their productivity. It is therefore necessary for organizations to offer an atmosphere at a work place that fosters happiness at work place.

Job satisfaction and Happiness Job satisfaction can be defined as a kind of attitude unto which is composed of an evaluative element and a cognitive element. It is about a person’s inclination to his/her job, it is mostly measured by a way of mental process evaluation (Fisher, 2000). Studies on management associate job satisfaction and happiness. Staw and Clausen (1986) pointed out that there is an evidence of the job satisfaction linking with happiness in a sense that satisfied employee seems to be happier with what they do at a work place. Happiness associates itself with a self assessment on how much a person is satisfied with what he/ she does.

Judge and Klinger (2008) deduce into the fact that, if one is happy with the job is doing consequently will be satisfied with it, this logically also deduces itself into another fact that those who are satisfied with their work, will be happy with such work and hence will try at their level best to perform more, as they more perform in a good way, production increases and hence more productivity. This is to conclude that, happiness of an employee at workplace is closely linked to if such an employee love and enjoys what he or she does at work. Happiness of an employee is actually relating to how much the employee is satisfied by his work. George (1995) emphasises that happy employees are more satisfied with their work than unhappy employee – in a way that happy employees are more productive as comparing to those workers who are not happy at work. Job satisfaction and Employee performance Scholars describe performance as a record of the outcomes produced on a specific job function or activity. To have a reflection on employee performance studies suggest six dimensions to be considered, such dimensions like, competency, skills,