THE RETENTION challenges that many organisations currently face are the result of people searching for more satisfying work, according to Professor Martin Seligman, a global expert on the link between positive psychology and work
THE RETENTION challenges that many organisations currently face are the result of people searching for more satisfying work, according to Professor Martin Seligman, a global expert on the link between positive psychology and work.
Research cited by Seligman empirically debunks the correlation between money and happiness, and as a result, he says, work life is undergoing a sea change in the wealthiest of nations.
Increasingly, talented and highly qualified individuals will select roles based on how much ‘flow’they can achieve at work, he says. Flow is achieved by designing jobs around natural strengths or choosing employees whose strengths present a good fit for the role.
As such, Seligman urges managers to allow employees to re-craft their work “within the bounds of their goals”.
“Organisations have reached the limit in testing for skills and talents,” he says, and believes a combination of strengths and talents together will deliver success.
“If you have the talent of Mozart and you are completely pessimistic about your talent to write music, then you’re not going to write great music. It’s the combination of talent and optimism that has been shown to deliver results.”
Key to the field of positive psychology is the identification of six ubiquitous core virtues – wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance and transcendence – which are common to all cultures.
Roger Collins, Professor of Management at The Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM), said that for positive psychology to have an impact at the organisational level, top tier executives or senior managers need to recognise that these principles hold a significance for financial performance.
“To be most effective in organisations, positive psychology needs to become a virtuous cycle enabling the value proposition built by the executive around conditions of work, job design and the culture of the organisation to create conditions where people can be contented, happy and excel,” he said.
“It should be expressed not only in the behaviour and words of the senior managers, but also in organisational policy. This is because policy provides the context for managers to use the approach at the local level, setting up teams and redesigning jobs to create the virtuous cycle that delivers good experiences at work.”
Seligman is the Fox Leadership Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, and presented a series of briefings with Collins at AGSM.
Key points
• Many people are resigning in search of more satisfying work
• Research debunks the correlation between money and happiness
• Organisations have reached the limit in testing for skills and talents
• Managers need to recognise that happiness at work impacts financial performance
