News Archive
Poor Behavior
How Behavioral Economics Interacts with Development Policy
The Economist Free Exchange
By paying attention to how people actually think, behavioral economics has qualified some of the underlying assumptions of classical economics, notably that everyone is perfectly rational. Some of the simplifying assumptions of economics are not always correct: people do not act in every instance in their long-term interest, they do not weigh all of the costs and benefits before making a decision.
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Joy to the World
What Ebenezer Scrooge and Tiny Tim Can Tell Us About Economics
The Economist Free Exchange
What is the point of economics? It often seems that the objective is to make the world richer. Yet this is the season when the ineffable supplants the material. Making it a good time to ponder whether maximizing income should really be the end-all of economic policy.
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The Real Roots of Midlife Crisis
The Atlantic's article explores the real roots of a midlife crisis
Written by Jonathan Rauch
What a growing body of research reveals about the biology of human happiness - and how to navigate the (temporary) slump in middle age.
Click here to read the full article.
Management QOL in the News - September 22, 2014
World Happiness Report 2013
Edited by John Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey Sachs.
The world is now in the midst of a major policy debate about the objectives of public policy. What should be the world’s Sustainable Development Goals for the period 2015-2030? The World Happiness Report 2013 is offered as a contribution to that crucial debate.
Click here to download and read the report in its entirety.
Management QOL in the News - August 22, 2014
A Test of Two Positive Psychology Interventions to Increase Employee Well-Being, Journal of Business and Psychology; September 2014, Volume 29, Issue 3, pp. 367-380
Authored by Seth Kaplan, Jill C. Bradley-Geist, Afra Ahmad, Amanda Anderson, Amber K. Hargrove, Alex Lindsey.
Despite an abundance of organizational research on how contextual and individual difference factors impact well-being, little research has examined whether individuals themselves can take an active role in enhancing their own well-being. The current study assessed the effectiveness of two simple, self-guided workplace interventions (“gratitude” and “social connectedness”) in impacting well-being.
Sixty-seven university employees participated in one of the two self-guided interventions for 2 weeks and completed self-report measures prior to the intervention, immediately following the intervention, and one-month post-intervention. Growth curve modeling was used to examine the effects of each intervention.
Partially supporting hypotheses, the gratitude intervention resulted in significant increases in positive affective well-being and self-reported gratitude but not did significantly impact negative affective well-being or self-reported social connectedness. The social connectedness exercise did not significantly impact any of those four outcomes. However, both interventions related to a reduction in workplace absence due to illness.
The study suggests that self-guided, positive psychology interventions (particularly gratitude) hold potential for enhancing employee well-being. Because the interventions are short, simple, and self-guided, there is little in the way of costs or drawbacks for organizations. Thus, these types of interventions seem like a potentially useful component of workplace wellness initiatives.
Management QOL in the News - May 27, 2014
Social Progress Index 2014
To truly advance social progress, we must learn to measure it, comprehensively and rigorously. The Social Progress Index offers a rich framework for measuring the multiple dimensions of social progress, benchmarking success, and catalyzing greater human wellbeing. The 2014 version of the Social Progress Index has improved upon the 2013 ‘beta’ version through generous feedback from many observers. We continue to welcome your use and testing of our data, and feedback to help us continue to improve.
Click here to learn more.
The Happiest Countries In The World, Julie Zeveloff, May 21, 2014
Ten of the 11 "most positive" countries in the world are in Latin America, according to a new report from Gallup.
The polling firm asked 1,000 people in 138 countries whether they had experienced various "positive" emotions the previous day.
Overall, most respondents felt some level of positivity in their lives. They were asked whether they experienced enjoyment, laughed or smiled, felt well-rested, were treated with respect, and learned or did interesting things.
Paraguay topped the list for the third year in a row, with 87% of respondents there saying they had experienced positive emotions the previous day. "That so many people are reporting positive emotions in Latin America at least partly reflects the cultural tendency in the region to focus on the positives in life," Gallup's Jon Clifton wrote.
Click here to read the entire article.
Management QOL in the News - April 17, 2014
Chip Conley: Measuring what makes life worthwhile, February 2010
When the dotcom bubble burst, hotelier Chip Conley went in search of a business model based on happiness. In an old friendship with an employee and in the wisdom of a Buddhist king, he learned that success comes from what you count.
You can listen to what he learned by viewing his TED talk at https://www.ted.com/talks/chip_conley_measuring_what_makes_life_worthwhile.
Click here to view his TED talk.
Management QOL in the News - February 1, 2014
Absenteeism among employees diagnosed with depression costs U.S. employers an estimated $23 billion annually, according to a Gallup Inc. report.
More than 18 million full- and part-time employees—roughly 12 percent of the total estimated U.S. workforce—have been diagnosed with depression at least once, according to the report, which was released July 24.
Full-time employees who were diagnosed at some point in their lives with depression missed an average of 8.7 workdays annually for health-related reasons—4.3 more days than employees without a history of depression, according to Gallup's report.
For part-time workers the gap was even larger. Part-time workers diagnosed with depression missed an average 13.7 days of work annually, five days more than workers who had not been diagnosed.
Gallup's findings were based on data collected in its sweeping "Well-Being Index" study, conducted from January 2011 to December 2012. The study interviewed 303,625 working adults nationwide.
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The American Psychological Association will recognize nine organizations for their efforts to promote employee well-being and performance at its eighth annual Psychologically Healthy Workplace Awards in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, March 9.
The four employers who will receive APA’s Psychologically Healthy Workplace Award (PHWA) are Bowers + Kubota Consulting (Hawai‘i), Triple-S (Puerto Rico), Christiana Care Health System’s Helen F. Graham Cancer Center, (Delaware) and Tripler Army Medical Center (Hawai‘i).
These organizations reported an average turnover rate of just six percent in 2012 — significantly less than the national average of 38 percent estimated by the U.S. Department of Labor. In surveys completed by the winning organizations, on average, fewer than 1 in 5 employees (19 percent) reported experiencing chronic work stress, compared to 35 percent nationally, and 84 percent of employees said they were satisfied with their jobs, versus 67 percent across the U.S. workforce. Only 11 percent of employees at these organizations said they intend to seek employment elsewhere within the next year, compared to almost three times as many (31 percent) nationwide.
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A healthy workplace complements this by supporting the health and well-being of employees. A workplace health programme refers to activities undertaken in the workplace. Public health strategies place increasing emphasis on opportunities to promote healthy behaviours within the workplace setting. The workplace directly influences the physical, mental, economic and social well-being of workers and in turn the health of their families, communities and society.
The World Health Promotion Programme (WHPP) deals with various factors affecting employee health such as poor & stressful working conditions, unclear work roles, lack of career development and conflicts between work, family and leisure. Currently nearly all public sector organisations have an ongoing (WHPP) in many countries.
Wellness programmes are linked to greater productivity, less absenteeism, and a reduction of long-term health care costs. Offer your employees healthy meal and snack options that help fuel their performance while also meeting their nutritional needs. Review the cafeteria menu in organisations to replace unhealthy food with healthier choices. Consider replacing sodas with milk, juice, and stocking snack machines with nuts, dried fruit, and other healthy options and be sure the office cafeteria has plenty of healthy meal options.
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