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University of Warwick, UK

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1 University of Warwick, UK
Happiness at Work Andrew Oswald University of Warwick, UK With many thanks to Professor Andrew E. Clark (Paris) for data and helpful advice.

2 Job satisfaction and work happiness have been studied in two ways.

3 Method 1 By asking people what they want in a job.

4 Method 2 By studying the statistical determinants of job satisfaction.

5 What do employees say they want in a job?

6 People’s top two priorities:

7 People’s top two priorities:
“Job security”

8 People’s top two priorities:
“Job security” “Work that is interesting”

9 The next four priorities:

10 The next four priorities:
“A job that allows me to work independently”

11 The next four priorities:
“A job that allows me to work independently” “Opportunities for advancement”

12 The next four priorities:
“A job that allows me to work independently” “Opportunities for advancement” “A job useful for society”

13 The next four priorities:
“A job that allows me to work independently” “Opportunities for advancement” “A job useful for society” “High income”

14 We have data on all this, from the International Social Survey Programme, for 15 countries.

15

16

17 Now to the literature on the determinants of job satisfaction.

18 Regression equations Job satisfaction = f(Age, gender, pay, education level, workplace characteristics, job security, region, year…)

19 A typical question “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your job?” Answers from 1, 2, ... 7 7 = “Completely satisfied” 1 = “Completely dissatisfied”

20 Some cheery news:

21 European levels of job satisfaction are high.
~ 5.4 out of seven

22 In our work, we have new data on random samples from 35 countries.

23 Findings on job satisfaction

24 Findings on job satisfaction
Pay Large workplace Female Job security Education Autonomy

25 Findings on job satisfaction
Pay positive Large workplace Female Job security Education Autonomy

26 Findings on job satisfaction
Pay positive Large workplace negative Female Job security Education Autonomy

27 Findings on job satisfaction
Pay positive Large workplace negative Female positive Job security Education Autonomy

28 Findings on job satisfaction
Pay positive Large workplace negative Female positive Job security positive Education Autonomy

29 Findings on job satisfaction
Pay positive Large workplace negative Female positive Job security positive Education zero Autonomy

30 Findings on job satisfaction
Pay positive Large workplace negative Female positive Job security positive Education zero Autonomy positive

31 On pay

32 On pay There is a lot of research that shows it is relative pay (particularly the ordinal rank of pay) that matters.

33 On autonomy

34 On autonomy Who controls the pace of work is important. It is OK if customers and colleagues do. Not when bosses or machines do.

35 On autonomy Who controls the pace of work is important. It is OK if customers and colleagues do. Not when bosses or machines do. Some evidence that it pays to give employees small freedoms (like the ability to move their desk slightly).

36 There is also an intriguing life-cycle pattern

37 Watch out for mid-life, and don’t be too hard on yourself.

38 The U in job satisfaction through life

39 This mirrors a general mid-life psychological low period (or ‘crisis’) that is normal in humans.

40 The pattern of a typical person’s happiness through life

41 The probability of depression by age
Males, LFS data set 0.02 0.015 0.01 Regression coefficient 0.005 -0.005 -0.01 1938 1942 1946 1950 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 Year of birth

42

43 Great apes also have a midlife low
We recently published this finding in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (joint with A Weiss et al.)

44 Now, promotion:

45 Do you, and should you, want to be promoted?

46 “Leadership is associated with lower levels of stress”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 2012. Gary D. Sherman et al.

47 “Using unique samples of real leaders, including military officers and government officials ... leaders had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol and lower anxiety.”

48 Yet new longitudinal research sheds doubt on the causality.

49 Extra Status and Extra Stress: Are Promotions Good for Us. by David W
Extra Status and Extra Stress: Are Promotions Good for Us? by David W. Johnston, Wang-Sheng Lee (June 2012) published in: Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 2013, 66 (1), 32-54

50 Yes, promotion improves job security, pay perceptions and job satisfaction in the short term...

51 “However, promotions have negligible effects on workers' health and happiness... mental health seems affected with .. a deterioration two years after promotion.”

52 Work by Francis Green, Keith Whitfield, et al.
Is work getting more stressful? [Yes] Work by Francis Green, Keith Whitfield, et al.

53 Proportion of High-Strain Jobs
A high-strain job is defined as having high required effort and low task discretion. It is important for well-being and health, according to the Karasek demand-control model. The definition of low discretion is “at or below median”. High required effort is defined to be those who “strongly agree” that their job requires them to work very hard. With this definition, the proportion of high strain jobs rose in this period from a small beginning, roughly 1 in 11 jobs in 1992, to approximately 1 in 6 jobs (men) and 1 in 5 jobs (women) by After 2001 the proportion of ‘high-strain jobs’ remained stable for men but for women it rose still further to encompass a quarter of jobs. A remarkably similar growth pattern is found in Sweden, with the rise of high-strain jobs being more persistent for women than for men (Wikman, 2005). It is also interesting to note the findings of Gorman and Kmec (2007), that both in the US and in the UK women’s work effort is greater than men’s, which, they argue, reflects stricter performance standards for women. Green (2008) Work Effort and Worker Well-Being in the Age of Affluence Source: Skills Survey series 53

54 But should organizations want their workers to have high job satisfaction?

55 Very probably, yes. Happiness makes people more productive.

56 Positive effects for organizations from job satisfaction
Edmans, A The link between job satisfaction and firm value, with implications for corporate social responsibility. Academy of Management Perspectives 26, 1-19. Bockerman, P; Ilmakannus, P The Job Satisfaction-Productivity Nexus: A Study Using Matched Survey and Register Data. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 26, 1-19.

57 The Edmans study “To address reverse causality, I measure firm value by using future stock returns ... ....Companies listed in the "100 Best Companies to Work For in America" generated 2.3% to 3.8% higher stock returns per year than their peers from 1984 through 2011.”

58 The Bockerman paper studies data on 1000 establishments in Finland.
It finds a strong correlation between job satisfaction and value-added-per-worker 2 years later.

59 A Warwick University study
We studied 500 people in the laboratory doing a ‘white collar task’ under timed pressure.

60 Those with recent family bad life events were less happy and less productive.
A random sample were made to laugh for 10 minutes first – they were then 12% more productive.

61 Just before I close:

62 Job satisfaction and mental well-being at work are of interest in themselves.

63 But, more broadly, there seem to be deep links between mind and body.

64 The work of Sheldon Cohen

65 The work of Sheldon Cohen
The Cohen laboratory trials show less-stressed people have a stronger immune system.

66 Author(s): Ebrecht M, Hextall J, Kirtley LG, Taylor A, Dyson M, Weinman J
PSYCHONEUROENDOCRINOLOGY     Volume: 29    Issue: 6    Pages:     Published: JUL 2004 

67 In other words, happier human beings heal more quickly.

68 We need to understand these interconnections better.

69 Some ideas to end:

70 Conclusions #1 There are clear patterns in job satisfaction found across the industrialized nations.

71 Conclusions #2 High job satisfaction seems genuinely valuable for organizations.

72 Conclusions #3 It is probably also valuable for people’s physical health.

73 Conclusions #4 Bosses do have lower cortisol and higher job satisfaction, but it is not clear that promotion does that to them.

74 Conclusions #5 There is some evidence that mental strain at work is a growing problem in Europe.

75 Conclusions #6 Giving people small freedoms probably pays off commercially.

76 I know you believe in fun at work

77 University of Warwick, UK
Happiness at Work Andrew Oswald University of Warwick, UK With many thanks to Professor Andrew E. Clark (Paris) for data and helpful advice.


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