Creativity and innovation for corporate happiness management

Abstract

In the system in which we are currently inserted, happiness and work seem to be completely exclusive words and without any possibility of association. The following study intends to show that it is possible to find a balance between happiness and work (Csikszentmihalyi in Gestão qualificada: a conexão entre felicidade e negócio, Bookman, Porto Alegre, 2004), by diagnosing the level of happiness shown by people in their working environment’s, proposing solutions to enhance happiness and productive in certain enterprise’s staff (Tidd and Bessant in Innovation and entrepreneurship, Wiley, London, 2007; Gestão da Inovação, Bookman, Porto Alegre, 2008). It is necessary, hence, an analysis beyond the happy-unhappy dichotomy when observing the different happiness levels presented in the routine and in the working hours, based on the interactions between creativity and innovation (Amabile in KEYS to creativity and innovation: user’s guide, Center For Creative Leadership, Greensboro, 2010; Sawyer in Explaining creativity: the science of human innovation, 2nd edn, Oxford University Press, Cambridge, 2012; West and Richter in Handbook of organizational creativity, 1st edn, Taylor and Francis, New York, 2008). Furthermore, this article shows that it is essential to combine the present’s happiness to a long-term project, an optimistic vision for the future (James and Drown in Handbook of organizational creativity, 1st edn, Elsevier, San Diego, 2012). To evaluate the work and a person’s life, this article develops a Multi Criteria Model of Work Organization and Evaluation and a Map of the Corporate Happiness Levels as a conscious path through workplace, collaboration in the enterprise, the marketplace and society, up to the personal and social life of a subject (Kamel in Artesão da minha própria felicidade, 1st edn. E-papers Serviços Editoriais Ltda, Rio de Janeiro, 2007). It offers ten practical recommendations to raise corporation rates of happiness. Accordingly, this paper proves its relevance by offering reference material to professionals and enterprises who search changes in its current personal management policy, willing to move towards a society with increasingly fulfilled professionals, happy and productive in their own employment.