Seeding Happiness to Enhance Productivity and Harvest Profits

An Undefined Emotion

Hysterical crowds at a rock concert and the ones swaying to the chants at a guru’s discourse have one thing in common. They all are in search of happiness. In fact, human beings, even with minimal aspirations, are all perpetually in pursuit of some sort of happiness. Happiness is amongst the most extensively researched subjects related to human well-being. Scholars have delved into innumerable aspects of happiness to declare what they think were convincing proofs, means and methods of securing happiness. Proven or not, we know beyond doubt that happiness is one of the most important ingredients of well-being and consequently influences everything an individual does. A universally accepted definition still eludes happiness despite extensive research in everything connected to it. However, universally people believe that happiness comes from within.  Happiness remains as subjective and vague an entity as it was, ever since it was first humanly experienced. Aware, awakened or not, everyone persists in their efforts to achieve happiness and pursue what they perceive would provide happiness.

Quantifiable Triggers and Subjective Experience

Happiness is generally associated with satiation of material needs or change in condition towards a desired state. This assumption, partly explains the fleeting and comparative nature of happiness. Purchase of a new car could trigger happiness, but it ebbs away over time. It could also plummet instantaneously seeing a colleague with a better car, newly purchased.  One’s own car, a source of happiness till then ceases to be so. Similarly, happiness experienced getting a jump in career could vanish when one realises that a colleague, considered less worthy, has secured an equal or better raise. While, even a basic meal could flood the poverty stricken with happiness, connoisseurs could remain stubbornly immune to happiness even at the most elaborately laid out fare. Happiness, though visibly associated with material possession or matching one’s expectations in each of these illustrations, is something intrinsically beyond mere physical possessions, change in conditions or relative success.

Behavioural scientists have linked happiness to various aspects like career, health, family, society, etc also. It has been seen that the intensity and longevity of happiness experienced by an individual varied depending upon the perceived level, achieved in relation to his expectations and aspirations. It is also widely accepted that, given the same inputs, intensity of happiness experienced and expressed varies from person to person. This is dictated by one’s choice of how happy one should be. Even those culturally conditioned to believe that being happy could invite unhappiness, do experience and express happiness in various forms.

Irrespective of the source of happiness, clinical studies have convincingly proved that happiness is associated with presence of biochemicals like serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin in the body. While presence of these can be ensured by chemical intervention, such drug induced stimuli have devastating effects and produce euphoria that is momentary and drug dependent.

Despite being associated with and triggered by quantifiable, measurable and comparable aspects like material possessions, career, health, family and society, happiness essentially remains subjective, ambiguous and personal.

Path to Sustainable Happiness

Happiness associated with material acquisitions and changing conditions are proven to be afflicted with short shelf life. As one gets accustomed to the changed conditions or has flaunted enough the acquisitions of creature comforts, happiness ebbs away. But happiness triggered by recognition, relevance and respect (Triple R) are seen to be durably useful. Since this source of happiness ends up in a reinforcing, reassuring positive cycle, individuals naturally tend to commit themselves to perform better and contribute more where needs of ‘Triple R’ are continually met.  Though inherent to an individual’s personal and social life, these are predominantly at play at his work place. Interestingly ‘Triple R’, enjoyed by an individual at his workplace easily spreads over to other spheres of his personal life.

Monetising Happiness

An organisational culture, where ‘Triple R’ is in abundance, can be crafted by human resource experts with vision. Managements mistakenly equate ‘Triple R’ with remunerations, designations and authority. Though these are essential to organisational existence and individuals acquiring more of it derive happiness from it, there are limits beyond which these can’t be granted and sustained. An organisation can have only one CEO. It can create innumerable verticals and can have one head for each. It can pay absurdly large compensation packages. It can assign tremendous authority to various individuals. But going beyond a certain limit will be detrimental to the very existence of the organisation.

Recognition relevance and respect exist on a different plane from everything else. It touches the very heart of dignified human existence. It doesn’t need heavy fiscal outlays. It just needs understanding and deft handling that visibly manifests itself in equality and objectivity.

The challenge for those entrusted with creating and maintaining such an OC would be to find ways to continually provide conditions where individuals experience incrementally increasing relevance, periodically receive inputs of recognition and believe that respect has been earned.

Way Forward

The fact that happiness comes along with a clutch of by-products, should excite human resource experts, interested in organisational success and growth. Happiness besides providing a sense of physical well-being, enhances self-worth, creates a sense of purpose, encourages optimism and strengthens commitment to the cause resulting in higher individual productivity. This can easily be channelised to further organisational aims and harvest operational profits. Disengaged from remunerations, designations and authority, organisations need to innovative to provide ‘Triple R’

Since it is natural for an individual to pursue happiness, it is easier to motivate him to pursue such activities than drive him for remunerations.  If an individual’s pursuit of happiness and organisational goals are coterminous or made even seemingly so, he would naturally be aligned with the organisational path.

The resultant is a win-win situation both for the individual and organisation.