Flourishing in the Workplace: An investigation into the intentional strategies employed by those experiencing long-term positive affect in the UK public sector Andrew Cope A Doctoral Thesis submitted in part-fulfilment of the requirements for the award of PhD November 2017 ‘I am normally cheery and have a ready smile, and am interested in people. I also believe I've only got one chance of being here (despite my Catholic upbringing I'm not so sure about an afterlife) and I'm determined it's going to be a bloody marvellous experience if I've got anything to do with it!’ (Respondent to one of the surveys in this thesis) Table of Contents Page Abstract 1 Executive Summary 3 My Interest in the Subject matter 13 Chapter 1: The Happiness Agenda 14 1.1 Introduction 15 1.2 International Happiness 16 1.3 The Politics of Happiness 18 1.4 Happiness: Health Benefits 21 1.5 Happiness: The Business Imperative 22 1.6 The Downside of Happiness and Positivity 26 1.7 If Happiness is Good for us, why Aren’t we Happier? 28 1.8 The Modern World as an Impediment to Happiness 29 1.9 The Hedonic Treadmill 31 1.10 The Role of Effort 33 1.11 Impediments to Organizational Happiness 34 1.12 Morale in an Economic Downturn 36 1.13 Public Sector Focus 37 1.14 The Unique Perspective of this Thesis 38 1.15 Beyond Individual Happiness 38 1.16 Research Objectives 40 1.17 Summary and Conclusion 42 Chapter 2: Happiness: Ancient and Modern 43 2.1 Introduction 44 2.2 Happiness and Positive Emotions: An Historic Perspective 44 2.3 Contemporary Studies of Happiness and Positive Emotions 46 2.3.1 Positive Psychology 47 2.3.2 Positive Organizational Behaviour and PsyCap 50 2.3.3 Happiness 51 2.3.4 Subjective Wellbeing 53 2.3.5 Flow and Strengths 55 2.3.6 The Happiness ‘Set Point’ 57 2.3.7 Broaden and Build 58 2.3.8 Employee Engagement 59 2.3.9 Social Contagion 60 2.3.10 Corporate Energy 61 2.4 Focusing on Flourishing 63 2.5 Summary and Conclusion 64 Chapter 3: Happiness: Nature or Nurture? 66 3.1 Introduction 67 3.2 The Constituent Parts of Happiness 68 3.3 Personality and Genetics 69 3.4 Environmental Contributors to Happiness 71 3.5 Activities that are Reported to Increase Happiness 73 3.5.1 Optimism and Positive Thinking 73 3.5.2 Gratitude and Good Deeds 76 3.5.3 Mindfulness 77 3.5.4 Religion 77 3.5.5 Relationships 79 3.5.6 Goal Setting and Strengths 79 3.5.7 Income 82 3.5.8 Physical Exercise 83 3.5.9 Age 85 3.6 Section Summary 86 Chapter 4: Flourishing in the Workplace 87 4.1 Introduction 88 4.2 Creating a Flourishing Culture 89 4.3 Working Relationships 91 4.4 Work Design 93 4.5 Job Satisfaction 95 4.6 Employee Engagement 97 4.7 The ‘Job Engagement’ Debate 101 4.8 Is There a Need to Re-focus on ‘Job Engagement’? 104 4.9 Research Questions a) To what extent do flourishing and non-flourishing employees differ on measures of ‘employee satisfaction’ and ‘employee engagement’? b) What intentional within-person strategies differentiate flourishing and non- flourishing employees? c) Which of these strategies is/are most significant? d) What part does ‘conscious choice’ play in happiness? e) Does long term positive affect involve effort or is it effortless? 4.10 Summary and Conclusion 109 Chapter 5: Measuring Happiness 111 5.1 Introduction 112 5.2 The Scarcity of the Term ‘Happiness’ in the Literature Review 112 5.3 Level and Stability Issues in Happiness Constructs 116 5.4 Measuring Happiness at Work 118 5.5 Approaches to Methodology 121 5.6 Data Capture: The Reality 123 5.7 Survey Design 126 5.8 Reflecting on Research Methods 129 5.9 Summary and Conclusion 130 Chapter 6: Methodology: The Phases of Data Capture 132 6.1 Introduction 133 6.2 Data Capture, Phase One 134 6.3 The Basic Happiness & Energy Survey 134 6.4 The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ) 136 6.5 Critique of the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire 137 6.6 Phase Two: Reflections on Happiness Survey 139 6.7 Phase 2: Warr’s IWP Multi-Affect Indicator 146 6.8 Phase Three: Intentional Strategies 147 6.9 Validity and Reliability of Qualitative Data 149 6.10 Summary and Conclusion 150 Chapter 7: Results Phase One: An Overview of the Population Sample 154 7.1 Participating Organizations 155 7.2 Phase 1: Basic Happiness & Energy Survey 157 7.3 Gender, Age and Religion 157 7.4 Self-Rated Happiness 161 7.5 Self-Rated Energy 162 7.6 Colleagues’ Happiness 163 7.7 Happiness - Past, Present and Future 165 7.8 Summary & Conclusion 167 Chapter 8: Phase Two Results: Reflections on Happiness Survey (RHS) & IWP Multi-Affect Indicator 169 8.1 Introduction 170 8.2 Themes Arising from the ‘Reflections on Happiness Survey’ 171 8.3 Reasons for Flourishing, Coded Against Lybomirsky’s 3-Part Happiness 172 Model a) Genetics 172 b) Circumstances 174 c) Intentional Strategies 177 i. Attitudinal Choice: Cognisance and Effort 178 ii. An Emotional Ripple Effect 182 iii. Resilience and Positive Self-Talk 184 iv. Gratitude 185 v. Strengths 186 vi. Goal Setting 188 vii. Religiosity and Happiness 189 viii. Happy Music and Feel-Good TV 191 8.4 Job, Career or Calling? 192 8.5 Reflecting on Workplace Affect (IWP Multi-Affect Indicator) 194 8.6 Summary and Conclusion 199 Chapter 9: Phase 3 Results: Intentional Strategies 201 9.1 Introduction 202 9.2 The Menu of ‘Intentional Strategies’ Provided in Phase 3 203 9.3 The Most Prominent Strategies 204 9.4 Statistically Significant Differences 208 9.5 Strategies in Which H+ and NonH+ Respondents Have no Significant 209 Differences 9.6 Summary 209 Chapter 10: Discussion of Results 210 10.1 Introduction 211 10.2 Self-Rated Happiness & Energy 212 10.3 Positive Futures; Real or Illusory? 215 10.4 Rising Above Job Satisfaction 217 a) Theme 1: The H+ Community are Happy at Home as Well as Work. 218 b) Theme 2: Few of the H+ Respondents are Engaged in Doing Their ‘Dream 220 Job’ but the Majority Enjoy Their Job. c) Theme 3: Attitudinal Choice Stands Out as a Major Underlying Factor in 222 Personal Happiness. And With Choice, Comes Effort. d) Theme 4: The Biggest Motivator for the H+ Community is ‘Making a 223 Difference’ e) Theme 5: The Biggest Demotivator for Flourishing Employees is 225 Negativity in Others 10.5 Dis-satisfaction as a Motivator 227 10.6 Workaholism 230 10.7 Flow 232 10.8 Phase 3: Discussion of ‘Intentional Strategies’ 233 10.9 Attitudinal Cognisance and ‘Choosing to be Positive’ 234 10.10 Happiness ‘Satisficers’ and ‘Maximizers’ 237 10.11 Resilience 238 10.12 TV, Music and News 240 10.13 Strengths & Goals 241 10.14 Impact on, and of, Other People 243 10.15 Feeling Connected 244 10.16 Religion and Flourishing 246 10.17 Summary 246 Chapter 11: Recommendations 249 11.1 Introduction 250 11.2 Government-Sponsored Wellbeing 251 11.3 Organizational Policies – the Wellness ‘Safety Net’ 252 11.4 Flourishing Organizations 253 11.5 Creating a State of ‘Healthy Dissatisfaction’ 254 11.6 Flourishing by Design 255 11.7 High Quality Connections (HQCs) 256 11.8 An Outbreak of ‘Happiness’ 257 11.9 Flocking Behaviour 258 11.10 Leadership Styles Most Likely to Propagate the Multiplier Effect 259 11.11 Heliotropic Leadership 261 11.12 Developing a Persuasive Vision of the Work and Why it Matters 263 11.13 Seeking Purpose Through Goals 265 11.14 Positive Communication 267 11.15 Recruitment and Succession 268 11.16 Crafting 268 11.17 A Strengths Audit 269 11.18 Reflections on Leadership and Organizational Factors that Facilitate 271 Flourishing Cultures 11.19 Attitudinal Choice 272 11.20 Resilience 275 11.21 Awareness and the ‘Whole Person’ 276 11.22 A Summary of Recommendations: 278 Chapter 12: Limitations of the Study and Implications for Future Research 281 12.1 Introduction 282 12.2 Balancing the Data 282 12.3 Self-Report Bias 284 12.4 Happy Introverts 285 12.5 Better Quality Data 286 12.6 Direction of Causation 288 12.7 The Downside of Engagement 289 12.8 A Private Sector Focus 289 12.9 The Timeframe 290 12.10 Limitations of the Theoretical Approach Taken. 290 12.11 Propensity to Flourish 291 12.12 Intentional Happiness 292 12.13 Finding the Expected? 293 Chapter 13: Conclusion 295 13.1 To what extent do flourishing and non-flourishing employees differ on 296 measures of ‘employee satisfaction’ and ‘employee engagement’? 13.2 What are the factors underpinning those who flourish at work? 298 13.3 What intentional within-person strategies differentiate flourishing and non- 300 flourishing employees? 13.4 Which of these strategies is/are most significant? 303 13.5 Does long term positive affect involve effort or is it effortless? 306 References 313 Appendices 373 List of Tables and Figures Page Figure 3.1 ‘What Determines Happiness?’ (Lyubomirsky, 2007) 68 Figure 4.1 Circumplex Model of Affect (Russell, 1980, 2003) 103 Table 5.1 433 Responses, Broken Down by Participating Organization 128 Table 7.1 Descriptive Statistics for Happiness, Energy and Others’ Happiness, 156 Broken Down by Organization Table 7.2 Results of Chi-square Test and Descriptive Statistics for Gender 157 Table 7.3 Results of Chi-square Test and Descriptive Statistics for Age 158 Table 7.4 Results of Chi-square Test and Descriptive Statistics for Religion 159 Table 7.5 Happiness, Energy and Colleagues’ Happiness 159 Table 7.6 Frequency of Self-Rated Happiness Scores 162 Table 7.7 Frequency of Self-Rated Energy Scores 163 Figure 7.8 Mean Scores for ‘Happiness’, ‘Energy’ and ‘Other’s Happiness’ 164 Across 9 Organizations Table 7.9 Results of Chi-square Test and Descriptive Statistics for Respondents’ 166 Happiness 5 Years Ago Table 7.10 Results of Chi-square Test and Descriptive Statistics for Respondents’ 166 Predicted Happiness in 5 Years Time Table 8.1 Comparison of mean Scores and T-Tests for H+ and NonH+ on the 16 196 Emotions Measured by the IWP Multi-Affect Indicator Figure 8.2 A Comparison of Mean Scores for H+ and NonH+ Workplace Affects 198 as Measured by Warr’s Multi-Affect Indicator Table 9.1 Menu of Strategies Offered to Phase 3 Participants 203 Figure 9.2 Comparison of Intentional Strategies for H+ and NonH+ Groups 205 Table 9.3 Comparison of the strength of Intentional Strategies for H+ and 206 NonH+ Respondents Abstract This thesis is focused on positive affect in the workplace, with a particular emphasis on the UK public sector.