Happiness and Productivity- What is the Correlation?

I am into correlations for the moment. Commonly accepted wisdom in Human Resources Management says that a happy employee performs better, is more productive, etc..

Is that necessarily true? I was unhappy and good at my studies in school. Many sales managers (and other managers) increasingly ill-treat, mistreat, and abuse their subordinates into performing or being more productive. Usually, they succeed.

The contingency theory of leadership claims that leadership style should change according to the type of subordinates and the context. China today produces goods at a lower cost than mot people in the world. Are their workers happier? I don't know, because I never heard of worker satisfaction surveys in China. Not sure if these are permitted under their system.

The question simply is this- is happiness of the employee at work over-rated? Now that I have provoked you, let us hear from you readers.

3 comments:

Harimohan said...

I think happiness may reflect in the quality of work. If its merely quantity, happiness may not be a criteria.

Diamond Head said...

Since happiness is a state of mind IMHO the measurement of said emotion is itself a paradox

Rajendra said...

Could be, Hari. I also think most of us get into a line of work without realizing what it will do to us.

DH, yes it is a state of mind, and some people are happy when others might be stressed. So we would have to be cautious in jumping to 'general' conclusions too soon.

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