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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Stress caused by climates of fear in the workplace is sapping employee decision-making and causing conflict in the workplace. While hard to quantify, it is easy to understand why intelligent and engaged employees are the ideal: there are fewer mistakes and higher productivity. The primary metric used to frame the reasons for motivation is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. It is also vitally important to understand the power balance between employees and employers. By the very nature of employment, employers have less need for a particular employee unlike the employee who cannot afford to be unemployed.
Keywords: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Climate of Fear, Job Security, Empowerment
INTRODUCTION
Research shows increasing employee compensation, fulfillment, empowerment, and support from management results in improved employee productivity, efficiency, spirit, loyalty, and retention. While many changes are the ideal, there are things that all companies should do to reduce excess stress in their employees. First, the need for employee happiness will be discussed followed by an explanation of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs theory that supports this claim. The next section will examine three companies recognized for their excellent employee environment and highlight what each company offers and what they lack. The conclusion will offer suggestions to companies that can be easily implemented.
THE NEED FOR HAPPINESS
It is important to establish the necessity of employers helping employees be happy at their place of work. Research has shown that a happy worker will be a more productive worker. Cropanzano and Wright (2001) drew from multiple sources in order to define happiness:
Taken together, it is generally accepted that happiness refers to a subjective and global judgment that one is experiencing a good deal of positive emotion and relatively little negative emotion. (p. 183)
Cropanzano and Wright (2001) drew from many different studies on worker happiness, but do not offer a definitive answer themselves. Their work also emphasizes that people who feel they have happiness in their life are better able to solve problems, help coworkers, and believe in their own abilities. Furthermore, there are four ways that happiness has been measured in previous research: job satisfaction, positive and negative affectivity of the worker, lack of emotional exhaustion, and psychological well-being (pp. 184-185).
Job satisfaction could include material compensation,...