28 Feb Seligman’s approach to happiness at work
Martin Seligman, one of America’s top academic psychologists and its leading happiness guru, is visiting Australian on a lecture tour sponsored by, of all outfits, the Australian Institute of Management. His thesis – for which he admits he doesn’t yet have scientific proof – is that happier managers and workers lead to higher productivity and profits.
Find that hard to believe? The bottom line would be fatter if only workers spent more time swapping jokes around the water cooler? It’s not as implausible as it sounds.
Part of the problem is that word “happiness”. It’s a great word for headlines, but it makes what Seligman prefers to call “positive psychology” sound frivolous, fleeting, self-centred and unworthy.
To read more on Seligman’s tour of happiness from the Sydney Morning Herald – click here.