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Happiness at Work: Maximizing Your Psychological Capital for Success 1st Edition

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 15 ratings

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Sharing the results of her four-year research journey in simple, jargon-free language, Pryce-Jones exposes the secrets of being happy at work.
  • Focuses on what happiness really means in a work context and why it matters to individuals and organisations in both human and financial terms
  • Equips readers with the information, knowledge and skills to make the most of the nearly 100,000 hours that they'll spend at work over a lifetime
  • Demystifies psychological research through a fascinating array of  anecdotes, case studies, and interviews from people in the trenches of the working world, including business world-leaders, politicians, particle physicists, and philosophers, sheep farmers, waitresses, journalists, teachers, and lawyers, to name just a few
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"After reading this book, I certianly did not need any more convincing that happiness at work matters. I am usually wary of self-help books, but the author's message is too simple to be ignored.... Read this book, take action and get happier at work." (Edge, 1 September 2011)

"Pryce-Jones, who is among a growing number of experts studying the connection between happiness and productivity in the workplace, suggests there's a significant difference between happiness and engagement." (Human Resource Executive Online, October 2010)

"This book is a useful addition to the array of books published in recent years the objective of which is to help folks who are not social scientists or clinical therapists understand happiness as a concept and how the research thereon over the past few decades can be used to achieve greater levels of personal happiness and the successes in life that go therewith." (Social Indicators Network News, May 2010)

"The author undertook an enormous five year study of the concept and implications of happiness at both work and at home. The result of the intensive interviews underlined the critical importance of workplace happiness, and its correlation with a happier personal life." (Blog Business World, June 2010)

"Normally I pick a book up, read the first few pages, then find I can't face it and end up leaving it in a hotel room. But this book, I picked it up, started to read it and I thought, ‘Hallelujah! Here is a book that makes sense at last.' And that was just so refreshing. I don't even have a copy at the moment, because I have given about ten of them away to people saying, 'You have just got to read this!'" (Fivebooks.com, June 2010)

"So, if you want a workplace filled with happy workers who are more productive, engaged and willing to contribute, then you need to read this wonderful book by Jessica Pryce-Jones." (Inside Personal Growth, May 2010)

"Everyone gripes about work, but Jessica Pryce-Jones, founder of British human-asset management consultancy iOpener, discovered that, believe it or not, work makes us happy. In her straightforward examination of the relationships among work, productivity and happiness, she takes readers on a journey through the core elements of happiness at work, ultimately tasking them with reaching their own happy place." (Kirkus Living Well Supplement, June 2010)

"Whether you're an individual who wants to enjoy the personal benefits that derive from happiness or part of a management team that recognizes the direct correlation between happiness and productivity, Happiness at Work is the essential guide to understanding this once-elusive subject." (HR.com, April 2010)

"An excellent study in employee happiness. There is a lot of value to be gained from this book." (Teach the Soul, April 2010)

"A useful and informative guide in helping employers create environments and structures that keep employees happy and productive." (Basil & Spice, April 2010)

"Sharing the results of her four–year research journey in simple, jargon–free language, [Pryce-Jones] exposes unexpected secrets about being happy at work." (StrategyDriven, April 2010)

"[Pryce-Jones] demystifies the latest research, illustrating her findings with a fascinating array of over 80 revealing interviews." (The CEO Refresher, April 2010)

"A fascinating new book based on many years of consulting and coaching experience … .Packed with case studies." (CNNMoney.com, April 2010)

"Good trainer that she is, Pryce-Jones works hard to convert knowledge to understanding, and finally, to practical action. This is a 'How To' book for grown-ups who recognise they can try harder and deserve better." (Management Today, February 2010)

"A very good book for understanding aspects of work that traditionally aren't considered 'important.' And if you're struggling with a job (either new or long-term) that doesn't seem to have that 'spark,' you may find out why (as well as how to change yourself and get re-centered)." (Duffbert's Random Musings, March 2010)

Review

We all want to be happy in every area of our lives, including work. This book offers the secret to finding happiness at work for us all, which in turn helps us to experience a more meaningful and healthy life.’
Lynne Franks, author of The Seed Handbook: The Feminine Way to Create Business

'Illustrated with fascinating and diverse interviews, this book is understandable and easy to read. Jess Pryce-Jones has definitely created a great guide for anyone who wants to improve their working life.'
Cathy L. Greenberg, PhD, New York Times Best Selling author of What Happy Working Mothers Know, and Managing Partner of h2c Happy Companies Healthy People

‘Jessica Pryce-Jones establishes happiness as more than a fleeting feeling; she argues that it is a critical resource for successful work and a good life. She brings her years of experience to bear on this important topic and provides practical tools for achieving more happiness at work. The book is wonderfully written.’
Robert Biswas-Diener, author of Positive Psychology Coaching

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wiley; 1st edition (March 29, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 254 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0470689420
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0470689424
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 15 ratings

About the author

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Jessica Pryce-Jones
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I'm currently the founder and CEO of iOpener a consultancy that focuses on people and performance. We're in the business of human asset management - in other words we help others to help others. Because that's what truly makes a difference at work.

I became interested in what makes people tick and tick better at work when I had a job working for an alcoholic, chain-smoking boss. After 10 months of this I jumped ship and worked for someone I respected, admired and whom I still see 25 years later. Even then I wondered about what really made me want to make an effort and what closed me to that possibility - and it sparked a long-term interest in finding out.

I'd always wanted to set up my own business even though when I was 26 I couldn't see how that might happen. But as Covey said, 'start with the end in mind' and somehow the rest all fell into place. Of course I've had a lot of lucky breaks on the way, and I think that this has been helped by not being afraid to ask. Not to mention finding some fabulous supportive colleagues too.

Writing the book was something I really wanted to do because we had so much information and knowledge gleaned from our years of experience. And I thought what a pity it would be if only those who could afford it had access to it. So I sat down to write a book that would be useful to anyone who had a job. Which I hope means you too.

Please write to me if you'd like to share your experience as I'm always interested to hear. You can contact me at jess.prycejones@iopener.com. And if you'd like to learn to deliver what we do inside or outside your organization, we'd love to hear from you too.

Meanwhile I hope you enjoy 'Happiness At Work' and that you walk away with some new ideas and practical tools to boost your personal success.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
15 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2013
As a career specialist I help people establish, develop, and advance their careers. I've read many books on workplace happiness, but none better than this.

Based on exhaustive and comprehensive studies and surveys, the book's author, Jessica Pryce-Jones, takes you through the triangle of workplace happiness and its three corners: human capital, social capital, and psychological capital. Human capital being talent; social capital being relationships; and psychological capital (the book's focus) being the key elements of happiness in a work context.

Many of the concepts of this book will be issues that most workers have felt, or thought, but it's the correlation to workplace issues from a holistic perspective that will resonate. Since it's estimated that we will spend 90,000 hours working in our lives; therefore, emotional engagement is important because it affects investment, output, and well-being.

Emotions are at the foundation of what Jessica refers to as the 5 C's - Contribution, Conviction, Culture, Commitment, and Confidence. These characteristics represent the crux of this reading, as they are expounded upon throughout the book; inevitably broaching related topics along the way such as working with others, and the part that I found fascinating - being listened to.

If you are an HR professional concerned with harmonizing workplace relationships, or a work wondering what elements are eluding you in your quest to find true harmony at work, look no further - this is it!
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Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2010
The fact that everything is tied to credible research makes this book a real step forward in understanding how to enjoy work and I believe has the potential to be one of those books that gets referenced a lot, i.e., I'd classify it as important work. What was disappointing is that the further I got into the book the worse the editing got. Hopefully, this will be rectified in the next edition of which I'm sure there will be one. Even so, I believe it's well worth reading, in fact I'd go as far as to say if you care about work productivity it's a must read.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2014
Informative and useful toward achieving personal and career goals.
Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2010
I selected Amabile's admonition as the title of this review because I think it offers the single best career advice anyone has as yet devised. It also suggests what may well be the single greatest challenge that business leaders now face: How to get the work to be done in proper alignment with strategic objectives but also in alignment with the talents, skills, temperament, and experience of those best qualified to do that work?

Many years ago, then chairman and CEO of Southwest Airlines, Herb Kelleher, said "If we take good care of our people, they'll take good care of our customers, and our customers will take good care of our shareholders." Year after year, Fortune ranks Southwest Airlines among the companies that are most admired, the best to work for, etc. It is no coincidence that its cap value and profits are greater than those of the next nine airlines...combined.

Now consider the results of recent research conducted by highly reputable firms that include Gallup and Towers Perrin: on average, about 25-30% of employees in a U.S workplace are actively and productively engaged and about 35-40% are passively engaged (doing as little as necessary to stay employed); as for the others, they are actively disengaged, with many of them hostile and having a toxic effect within and beyond their workplace. Companies such as Southwest Airlines, Nordstrom's, The Container Store, SAS, Edward Jones, Wegmans, and Google have no problems with employee engagement.

All this serves as an introduction to Jessica Pryce-Jones's book, Happiness at Work, in which she explains with rigor and eloquence how to maximize "psychological capital for success." She invokes the term "happiness" for the same reasons that Tom Rath invokes the term "well-being" in his most recently published book bearing that term as its title. He agrees with Pryce-Jones that happy workers feel appreciated, enjoy the work they are asked to do and take pride in doing it well, share mutual trust and respect with their associates, welcome and appreciate constructive feedback, are committed to continuous improvement, embrace challenges, and in countless other ways do all they can to help their organization prosper.

Based on extensive research in 79 countries, Pryce-Jones and her associates learned a great about what happiness at work is...and isn't. The specific lessons learned fall within ten subject areas, with a separate chapter devoted to each. Shrewdly, Pryce-Jones also includes a "Top takeaways" list of key points at the end of each chapter. Readers will also appreciate the strategic deployment of several dozen boxed contributions by a wide range of people whose observations are especially relevant to the theme of the chapter in which h they are inserted. These have an authenticity because, literally, they are voices from the real world expressed by those who have direct experience with the given issues, such as:

What value do my contributions have?
What are my major motivations?
How well do I fit in within my workplace culture?
How much do I care - really care - about what I do and how I do it?
How confident am I that I am where I want to be, doing what I want to do?

Of course, each individual worker must answer these and other questions but I think Pryce-Jones is correct that supervisors would be well-advised keep in mind that those for whom they are directly responsible are probably asking most (if not all) of these questions frequently. I presume to suggest that supervisors do whatever more they can do to make their direct reports feel that they are their efforts are appreciated; make their workplace a more enjoyable environment; encourage and support improved communication, cooperation, and collaboration between and among them and others in the workplace; ensure that - to the extent possible and appropriate - direct reports are doing what they enjoy most and do best; and [provide whatever reassurances and encouragement direct reports may need on occasion.

At least some business leaders have little (if any) interest in making workers "happier" and thus will ignore this book. Their focus is on getting workers to produce "morebettersooner" and at a lower cost. In fact, they should check out "The Ten Top Findings That Really Matter" from the iOpener Global Research Study (Pages 28-29). For example, "People who are happiest at work are 47 percent more productive than their least happy colleagues...they take only 1.5 days off sick a year [but] in the public sector that ranges from 11 up to a staggering 20 days...Employees in the top happiness group have 180 percent more energy than those who are most unhappy at work"...those who are most happy are 50 percent more motivated than those least happy", etc.

I highly recommend this book to leaders in any organization (whatever its size or nature may be) in which there is one or more of these needs: to increase positive and productive employee engagement, to eliminate waste, to establish and nourish a culture of transparency and civility, and to maximize co-creation initiatives both internally and externally. If your organization has one or more of these needs, Jessica Pryce-Jones offers the single best source for the information and counsel you require.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Cliente de Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars Las 5 Cs
Reviewed in Mexico on April 18, 2019
Es un libro muy practico con unq base clara de lo que genera la felicidad en cada persona, son principios van directo a la base...
LMC
4.0 out of 5 stars good shape, no issues with the delivering
Reviewed in Spain on October 27, 2016
good shape, no issues with the delivering
I would recommend this way of buying books, very cheap vs new ones
Patrice Lasserre
5.0 out of 5 stars Happy reading
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 6, 2011
Beware, this book is addictive. It is probably the best book I have studied and the fact that it is superbly written does not hurt. Jessica Pryce-Jones's book is an absolute must for anybody interested in work and happiness, and how to make them join and live together happily ever after.
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ABS
3.0 out of 5 stars Flawed science, flawed concept and flawed book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 1, 2014
I have a consultancy company I want to promote, I have a hair brained theory I want to prove and I have some pet psychological theories I want to parade, I know I will write a book! Please, how many of the reviewers have really read this book or really understand human psychology?

The most researched theory of motivation Self Determination Theory! Says who? A reasonable theory but what about Goal Theory or Expectancy Theory or the other "69" I could mention (and a few more on top of that)

In the previous chapter we are all rats and our behaviour can be manipulated! Behaviourism in humans was proven flawed decades ago but here it is rolled out alongside other half baked ideas. There again the author did spend a whole three days reading the theories behind this book (and it shows).

The concept of Psychological Capital is the only thing that stopped me giving this book one star.

It is clear the author is like the many other people in the coaching industry, have pet theories and these answer every question and they only hear what they want to.

This book has minimal psychological grounding, is an attempt to prove own pet theory and should be avoided unless you are looking for the easy answers to all your problems
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