University of Hertfordshire’s search for ‘happy productive worker’ (From Watford Observer)

University of Hertfordshire’s search for ‘happy productive worker’

9:10am Wednesday 17th March 2010 in

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A paper at the conference on happiness at the University of Hertfordshire today will explore the possibility of work providing a route to happiness.

One of the conference speakers, Paul Smith, Associate Head of Department at the Business School and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, will present a paper on Work and Happiness: The Continued Search for the Happy Productive Worker.

During the presentation, he will explore possible links between work and happiness from the perspective of the occupational psychology and management literature, and also from a number of other viewpoints, including that of the Government’s “happiness guru” Lord Layard.

“These approaches tend to view happiness primarily in terms of job satisfaction and their focus is often on the ‘Holy Grail’ of finding the link between job satisfaction and employee performance (i.e. the happy productive worker)”, the speaker will say, before going on to argue that, whilst these provide useful insights, a wider perspective on happiness at work is needed.

Paul Smith will speak at the conference entitled Happiness – Perspectives from the Social Sciences, Humanities and Creative Arts, at which philosophers, historians, economists, social scientists and creative arts practitioners will gather to discuss what happiness means and how a greater depth of the state can be achieved.

A highlight of the is a keynote on the The Art of Happiness by Professor Richard Schoch from Queen Mary, University of London.

Other conference contributions will include a paper on the link between income and happiness, a study into life satisfaction among adolescent girls, and a philosopher’s view of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ unhappiness.