What makes an organization happy???

[Vijay Kumar Shrotryia]

hi friends
I just would like to initiate a discussion on the constituents of making an organisation a happy org. In my view EE is one such effort which could enhance employee satisfaction, so Employee Satisfaction should be considered first constituent. Then comes the satisfaction of the customers/clients which could be achieved by providing better value for money and excellent service quality. Then comes the management which of course would be interested in better profitability as well as better impression about the organization.
Another constituent could be responsibility towards society or as it is termed in management literature CSR. Socially responsible organizations and their effort to sustain such sense of social responsiveness can go a long way in making an organization happy.....
There could be many more such dimensions which we could talk about and explore...

[Vijay Kumar Shrotryia]

David
I think it is possible. An organization as an entity have policies. Moreover, it is already there in a way like :
1. organizations try to satisfy its employees by providing better working env, salary & compensation, promotion opp, etc etc
2. organizations try to satisfy its customers/clients by serving them better value for money, service quality & service performance, etc etc.
3. organizations try to satisfy their promoters, shareholders etc by making sure their stocks are indexed better
4. organizations try to satisfy society in general through their CSR initiatives.

there could be many more such activities and priorities...I call it Organizational Happiness... and why not it could be focused towards this. Most important thing, in my view could be to balance the efforts towards the stakeholders to make most of them Happy....

vijay

[David Zinger]

Vijay,

I appreciate the discussion you have fostered and facilitated. It is very interesting to read the comments.

I respect your comments. I see happiness as residing more within people within an organization rather than the organization itself.
David

[Vijay Kumar Shrotryia]

You are right.....I also think it lies in the attitude of the person.....However as an organization one could initiate a strategic framework which could lead to make an org a Happy Org...
vijay

[Mark Moorton]

Hi Vijay

The concept of a "happy" organisation really interests me. I guess the starting point is how do you define what "happy" is - and how do you measure it?

In addition and on the face of it, you could have a very happy organisation that is neither profitable (if commercial) or achieves very little.

That aside, I agree that the more "happy" employees are, the more likely it is that customers will engage with the organisation and provide "repeat" business as well as advocate elsewhere.

To be devils advocate - and maybe provoke the discussion - is a happy organisation an effective organisation? And is it necessary? And is there an automatic correlation between a happy organisation and an engaged one?

Mark

[Robert Morris]

Excellent question, Mark.

An under-performing organization whose people are nonetheless happy probably helps to explain why it's under-performing. However, I know of no high-performance organization in which most of its people are unhappy. Most of the companies on Fortune magazine's annual list of "Most Admired" are also on its annual list of those most profitable. That is not a coincidence.

Here in Dallas, we have a high-performance and nationally recognized company with which I am very familiar. Its people are probably the happiest of any workforce I know of because the company's co-founder and CEO understands what's most important to his carefully hired and then well trained workers. The company offers 24/7/365 call processing services for about 300 corporate clients. Most of the jobs are by nature sedentary because call processors sit at computer terminals. Many of his full- and part-time workers are confined to a wheelchair so he has specially designed ramps, rest rooms, water fountains, and even access to vending machines. (They would otherwise have a very difficult time obtaining employment.) Many of his part-time workers are single parents (predominantly mothers) so he allows them to come in after dropping off children at school and then leave in time to pick them up later. Such considerations send a very positive message to all of the other workers and help to explain why annual attrition is less than 3% and almost everyone is highly self-motivated to provide superior service.

My own opinion is that just about everything depends on the selection of new hires. Peak performers (preferably cross-functional) should be centrally involved in the interview process. Also important: Skills can be taught with expert training but not character. Performance expectations must be made crystal clear, with performance then measured and -- yes -- rewarded in terms of results. (It's true: What can't be measured can't be managed.) Most workers are happiest when (a) they are asked to do what they do best, (b) their strengths are in alignment with their tasks and leveraged with others' efforts. (c) they receive continuous constructive criticism, (d) they feel appreciated, and (d) they understand how and why the results they produce help to achieve the entire organization's objectives.

One man's opinions....

I hope many others will share theirs and I will be very grateful for them.

[Jean Douglas, CMC]

Excellent reply, Robert. I agree with you. This story is a wonderful example of how a very difficult to fill (and retain) role was looked at differently. I applaud this employer whoever they are.

With respect to some of the other posts about measuring engagement and the references to the Gallup 12. Please remember that the survey items are copyright material and if you want to use them, then contact Gallup. There are other very valid and reliable measures of engagement and employee opinions out there but lack the national (USA) coverage that Gallup enjoys. One place to look is at the firms that sponsor the "Best Employers / Companies / Organizations lists in Canada, Europe, Australia, South America, India, China, etc. to see what they have to say. Many post research articles or at a minimum the study findings online.

If you want to measure happiness, then you need to identify the components that make up happiness. Seligman's work on Happiness, as David said, is a good place to start. There is also a research journal on Happiness - I think you can find out about it at the American Psychological Association website.

For me, if I am truly engaged, then I am happy.

[Vijay Kumar Shrotryia]

Jean
There have been many works on happiness and having worked in Bhutan for around 9 years, I know what in true sense happiness is for an individual. Saligman's work on this is praiseworthy, however there are researchers like, Ed dienner, Cummings, veenhoven, layard, easterlin ( just to name few) who have done remarkable work on happiness (for individuals or nations). And yes the journal of happiness studies is a good testimony in this regard.

But for an organization and that too for a profit making organizations there would be many more variables to be taken into account and that perspective would be different than valuing happiness of individuals or nations.....

vijay

[Vijay Kumar Shrotryia]

Is that so, robert...what cannot be measured cannot be managed. I wont buy this on the first instance, however it could be true in many organizations...
There are so many subjective things, may not be able to be measured but needs to be managed......
We need to manage Relations, We need to manage Culture, we need to manage Value systems. Whatever way we develop internal/external factor matrix evaluations, do balance scorecarding, make comparisons, still might miss out on measurement of many vital parameters and factors.....
Further, I would agree in general that - Most Admired, Most Innovative, Most Successful, Most Effective........corporations might be happy organizations. But I would like to make a point here, that in most cases these organizations have been striving for maximising profit and I think if we focus on maximising happiness for all the stakeholders, it would certainly take care of profit.....

True,,,,,one man's opinion......here tooo.

vijay

[Vijay Kumar Shrotryia]

yes there is difficulty in defining a Happy organization. However it is not impossible... The initiative like this could provide an argument for/against different variables and their applicability at an uniform level.
There have been works on comparing a successful organization as against effective/efficient organization. Every successful organization may not be an effective org, same way may not be a happy organisation. Every Happy (to be defined more objectively) organization may not be a successful organization.
I strongly feel (more subjectively) that once organizations strive for becoming Happy Organizations, it should be able to take care of Effective/efficiency/successful paradox....

lets keep the discussion more lively, convincing and evolving......

thanx for your comments and contributions...

looking forward..


vijay

[Jon Ingham]

Hi Vijay,

I think we need to be careful about happiness. It could increase engagement, but I think it could reduce it too. I think that will depend upon the organisational context and the type of people the organisation employs.

Since there have been a couple of comments about Gallup Q12 within this discussion, I would also note that I think their question 'do you have a best friend at work' is the one I, and I know quite a few organisations, always struggle with.

In my book ('Strategic Human Capital Management: Creating Value through People'), I provided a comment from Whitbread talking about staff at TJI's - the restaurants with the most best friends were also the lowest performers - too much fun reduced rather than improved engagement (at least engagement to producing positive business returns).

I think the same could easily apply to happiness. You need to understand your own organisation and decide (then validate) whether this would be something that would work for you.

[Vijay Kumar Shrotryia]

hi jon

I agree to most of your views

vijay

[Kevin Burns - Attitude Expert]

Vijay,

Nothing will make an organization happy. Happiness is not a result ... it is a choice. You may find fulfillment or joy or satisfaction in your work but you won't find happiness. It doesn't exist there. Think about it and perhaps use another word to ask your question.