There is a lot of research on that (and on closely related topics, such as motivation, sense of belonging, citizenship behavior, etc.), and I have only barely scratch the surface of it in my own readings. One important thing to keep in mind is that the variations (different people, different roles, different cultural contexts, different company cultures, etc.) really do matter, so what tends to make a particular group of employees happy in one situation might not tell us much about what tends to make another group of employees happy in a very similar situation. Some of the research confirms what many people suspect to be true: having clearly established goals helps, having a psychologically sage environment helps, etc. Some of the research shows results that are somewhat surprising: money actually does tend to be a pretty good motivator, when you ask people what they want and then give it to them they tend to be less happy than people for whom you make a decision.
I suspect there are whole textbooks on the topic of what tends to make employees happy, and I’d love to learn more about this research area. I have lots of loosely held opinions, but I’m familiar with very little of the research/
One framework that I am familiar with that I find helpful is the job characteristics theory, which roughly states that five different things tend to make people happy in their jobs: autonomy, a sense of completion, variety in the work, feedback from the job, and a sense of contribution. You can look the details of it more, but an interesting and simple exercise is to try reading through The Work Design Questionnaire while thinking about your own job.
Thank you for an excellent reply. I’ve for a long time found the “mastery, autonomy, purpose” concept useful and think of it as true – for lack of a better word. That these three aspects determine drive/motivation/happiness to a large extent, in a work context.
There is a lot of research on that (and on closely related topics, such as motivation, sense of belonging, citizenship behavior, etc.), and I have only barely scratch the surface of it in my own readings. One important thing to keep in mind is that the variations (different people, different roles, different cultural contexts, different company cultures, etc.) really do matter, so what tends to make a particular group of employees happy in one situation might not tell us much about what tends to make another group of employees happy in a very similar situation. Some of the research confirms what many people suspect to be true: having clearly established goals helps, having a psychologically sage environment helps, etc. Some of the research shows results that are somewhat surprising: money actually does tend to be a pretty good motivator, when you ask people what they want and then give it to them they tend to be less happy than people for whom you make a decision.
I suspect there are whole textbooks on the topic of what tends to make employees happy, and I’d love to learn more about this research area. I have lots of loosely held opinions, but I’m familiar with very little of the research/
One framework that I am familiar with that I find helpful is the job characteristics theory, which roughly states that five different things tend to make people happy in their jobs: autonomy, a sense of completion, variety in the work, feedback from the job, and a sense of contribution. You can look the details of it more, but an interesting and simple exercise is to try reading through The Work Design Questionnaire while thinking about your own job.
Thank you for an excellent reply. I’ve for a long time found the “mastery, autonomy, purpose” concept useful and think of it as true – for lack of a better word. That these three aspects determine drive/motivation/happiness to a large extent, in a work context.