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Happiness Management and Social Marketing: A wave of sustainability and creativity

by Rafael Ravina Ripoll (Volume editor) Luis Bayardo Tobar Pesántez (Volume editor) Araceli Galiano Coronil (Volume editor) José Marchena Dominguez (Volume editor)
©2021 Edited Collection 252 Pages

Summary

In these moments of health crisis, happiness management and social marketing are not teaching that it is possible to build a more committed, innovative and productive society. To achieve this end, countries and organizations must undertake a wave of human resource policies and actions that stimulate individuals’ happiness and creativity. In this way, a new economy can emerge that holistically promotes social welfare, equality, and talent.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Contents
  • Contributors
  • Preface
  • Introduction
  • “Happiness is the only thing that multiplies when you share it”: Happiness Management?
  • Management of the loyalty of the federated karate athlete and its correlation with happiness
  • Assessing the citizens´ well-being needs in OECD countries using Rasch Model: Manuela Ortega-Gil, María Jesús Delgado-Rodríguez and Georgina Cortes-Sierra
  • Collective happiness in organizations of the third sector
  • Social interest to the hosting population of tourism. Generated happiness in the supply and demand for the rural tourism
  • Happiness Management: a wave of sustainability and social representation
  • Literacy for happiness. Where are we going?
  • Well-being and happiness: the role of gas and electricity during the birth of the consumer society in Spain in the first third of the 20th century: Mercedes Fernández-Paradas and Nuria Rodríguez-Martín
  • Engaging leaders and work-life balance as enhancers of happiness at work (HAW)
  • History of art, Holy Week and Mindfulness. Identitary and emotional interrelations
  • The resources of the NGDO in Spain and volunteering. A reflection from the social marketing perspective
  • YouTubers as influencers in the responsible promotion and Happiness Management of fashion brands
  • Socio-demographic variable effects in the evaluation of competencies that facilitate the Chief Happiness Officer (CHO) Labor
  • Reading and happiness empirical evidence in Spanish students
  • Notes on contributors

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Contributors

Ph.D. Ana Fondón-Ludeña

King Juan Carlos University (Spain)

Ph.D. Andrés Salas-Valina

University of Valencia (Spain)

Ph.D. Anna Ferrer-Franco

Hospital Doctor Peset (Spain)

Ph.D. Antonio Rafael Fernández-Paradas

University of Granada (Spain)

Ph.D. Araceli Galiano-Coronil

University of Cádiz (Spain)

Ph.D. Azucena Penelás-Leguía

University of Alcalá (Spain)

Magister Bárbara Castillo-Abdul

King Juan Carlos University (Spain)

Ph.D. Beatriz Rodrigo-Moya

The National Distance Education

University (UNED) (Spain)

Degree Cristina Loranca-Valle

University of Alcalá (Spain)

Ph.D. Eduardo Ahumada-Tello

University Autónoma de Baja California (México)

Ph.D. Estela Núñez-Barriopedro

University of Alcalá (Spain)

Ph.D. Heitor Romero-Marques

Catholic University of Dom Bosco (Brazil)

Ph.D. Guillermo Antonio Gutiérrez-Montoya

Catholic University of Don Bosco (El Salvador)

Degree Irene Martín-Arenas

University of Granada (Spain)

Ph.D. José Marchena-Domínguez

University of Cádiz (Spain)

Ph.D. José María López-Sanz

University of Alcalá (Spain)

Ph.D. Judith J. Hernández-García de Velazco

Universidad de la Costa CUC (Colombia)

Ph.D. Luis Bayardo Tobar-Pesantenz

University Politécnica Salesiana (Ecuador)

Ph.D. Luís M. Romero-Rodríguez

King Juan Carlos University (Spain)

Ph.D. Mª Adelina Georgina Cortés-Sierra

University of Extremadura (Spain)

Ph.D. Manuela Ortega-Gil

University of Cádiz (Spain)

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Ph.D. María Jesús Delgado-Rodríguez

King Juan Carlos University (Spain)

Ph.D. María-José Foncubierta-Rodriguez

University of Cádiz (Spain)

Ph.D. Mercedes Fernández-Paradas

University of Málaga (Spain)

Ph.D. Nuria Rodríguez-Martín

University of Málaga (Spain)

Ph.D. Pedro Cuesta-Valiña

University of Alcalá (Spain)

Ph.D. Rafael Ravina-Ripoll

University of Cádiz (Spain)

Randal Scamardo Southwestern University (USA)

Magister Regina Pereira-Mazzi

Catholic University of Dom Bosco (Brazil)

Ph.D. Susana Pasamar-Reyes

University Pablo de Olavide (Spain)

Ph.D. Victoria Sanagustin-Fons

University of Zaragoza (Spain)

Translator: Randal Scamardo

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Preface

Happiness Management (HM) is not an approach that can be likened to a “goofy happiness utopia”. I use this term because, as Page, Govindji, Carter and Linley (2008) rightly point out in reference to leadership, positive human resource management models can translate into more satisfactory results for the worker and the company. I wanted to begin the prologue to this work by highlighting one of the misconceptions that have been poured into Positive Psychology (PP) and also into Happiness Management, since I will use the first as an epistemological source to justify the reality and possibilities of the second. This is what the authors have wanted to reflect in the title of the work itself (Happiness management and social marketing: a wave of sustainability and creativity), and the portico cannot, and should not, be out of tune with the articles that more than justify the antechamber promised to us at the head of the book.

The reader will find a general approach to the content of the 14 chapters in the introduction that follows this preface. It is up to me to fly over this territory, which is so well articulated and ordered, with a transversal look that delves into questions of an anthropological or social nature, always from the inevitable bias that I have as a psychologist in the disciplinary field. I apologize for the monolithic lens of the analysis prism, but that is the risk they have taken with the invitation. In any case, there is such a degree of overlap in the approach of both Happiness Management and Social Marketing (MS) with Positive Psychology that it will be easy to articulate an integrating discourse of minimums between the three disciplines. Because the analysis of human behavior has very relevant keys to explain, among other phenomena, why the 2009 crisis had much to do with illusory optimism (MS’s very elaborate pairing) or, why it is relatively useless to give ethics courses to Walt Street brokers (HM’s false inefficiency). Both questions are relevant because they reflect misunderstandings linked to the pseudo-science of positive thinking that has nothing to do with PP as a scientific discipline, nor with magical artefacts in the fields of HM or MS. Explanations in the field of science, whether basic or applied, should focus on the what (reflective reality) in order to seek a how (change or optimizing application). Hence the line of theoretical-practical continuity of the ←11 | 12→interrelations of the PP with the derivation in the processes of organizational management (OM) and in the representation of the same (MS).

In the examples above, misguided optimism is fought from the assumptions of the planned fallacy (explained by Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman), and can be fought by correcting biases in decision making by properly balancing costs and benefits. In the second case, the dissynchrony between ethics and values can be explained on the basis of the assumptions of the functional autonomy of motives, given that reality is transformed on the basis of the perceptions and expectations that are held about it. These two examples are enough to justify the necessary triangulation that the work proposes, with two explicit actors (HM and MS) and a third (PP) that connects them and provides them with the anthropological (the human being in permanent search of happiness) and social (articulating a seductive discourse on the keys to collective well-being) foundations.

A rationale for the parallelism and feedback between the HM and PP is based on reflections and developments in the field of welfare economics. As Seligman (2011) points out, the psychological science that has promoted this new vision of human beings and their social behaviour in the field of organizations is not focused on the promotion and search for material prosperity or wealth as the supreme goal, but on well-being and happiness. The paradox of the gulf between Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and well-being is well known, and how the rapid increase in wealth translates into a decrease in levels of life satisfaction. The phenomenon is also evident at the lower end, because the poor in Calcutta are happier than the poor in San Diego (Biswas & Diener, 2001). Therefore, in addition to the economic variables, there are other factors that play a relevant role in shaping companies and organizations that obtain better results as a result of greater satisfaction among employees and clients. And from the positive economy approach there is a translation of theory into practice based on five levels: positive emotion, delivery, positive achievements, positive relationships and meaning. All these dimensions are, in one way or another, related to the HM’s budgets. Let us briefly see the parallels by regrouping the correspondences in three basic cores.

First of all, positive emotions and relationships, because they place the line of continuity from the personal to the organizational level. The role of emotional intelligence (EI) in organizations has been greatly highlighted in recent decades (Goleman, 2015), as have the possibilities of its ←12 | 13→training and empowerment. And, certainly, the postulates and premises in which the benefits of the EI construct are articulated are aligned with the philosophy of the HM. However, I would like to highlight a transcendental element in the nexus between the emotional universe and human relations, which is negotiation. Any organization, whether it is a company that generates products or services, is permanently subject to processes of seeking agreements or consensus. In a constantly changing market, labor adjustments, work-life balance systems or the necessary adaptations as a consequence of COVID-19, place negotiation skills at the epicenter, a cardinal management element of the HM.

A high level of training in this management competence should be mandatory for all team leaders. The work of Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro (2005) is a classic of the subject, and, moreover, with applications of the enormous possibilities of a prism applied to a microcosm (negotiating in a company) to a general macrocosm (negotiating between governments). Because bad negotiation generates negative emotions, with immediate and lasting effects, which are very damaging to relations. As these authors point out, knowing how to manage basic expectations (appreciation, affiliation, autonomy, status and function) modifies emotional responses and the results of negotiations, allowing relationships to flow despite the discrepancies or problems to be resolved that caused them. Here again, the MH could be related to fatuous MS models, for example imposed institutional strategy proposals, which adulterate all the above expectations. These mediatic artifices, by not considering the value of the other in this false negotiation, provoke disdain for thinking (vs. Appreciation), treatment as an adversary (vs. Affiliation), limitations in decision making (vs. Autonomy), consideration of being inferior (vs. Status), and performance dissatisfaction (vs. Function). Properly managing these basic expectations is not only relevant for the successful implementation of the institutional strategy, but also for accompanying the process with the satisfaction and well-being of all the actors involved. It seems evident that the applications of the PP to the field of the MH, and with the very relevant role of representation played by the MS, have a great derivation in the emotional and relational field. Because it is a matter of cultivating positive emotions that encourage cooperation, as opposed to “controlling” ones that have a pyramidal intentionality of quasi-feudal submission.

Because of its enormous relevance in organizational and social spheres, we stop at the negative emotion of fear. However, it is important to ←13 | 14→remember that all emotions have an adaptive function, which in the case of fear is flight from a dangerous situation. The problem occurs when there is an extreme response (generated by the individual or the organization) that leads to paralysis, which modifies the adaptive function of this emotion and makes it a hindrance to organizational development and a source of immense suffering for the individual/employee. The work of the philosopher José Antonio Marina (2006) makes an allegory of the two sides of the coin (fear/courage) that are not always reflected in job satisfaction surveys in relation to this emotional response. As a basic explanatory scheme, the result of this negative emotional balance derives from a decompensation between the Resources factor and the Challenges factor. Thus, when the employee or the institution does not provide the necessary means for performance, the avoidant or paralyzing response generates a very high disruptive emotional burden. We academics are not exempt from risk, because some keys to stress do not depend on our coping capacities but on the leadership’s guidelines (Kubátová, 2019). Unfortunately, in some organizational approaches, quite distant from the MH of course, they use this mechanism as a form of social control in the company. Intimidation has very subtle ways of making power visible for purposes such as: stopping careers, reducing or limiting responsibilities, and even firing oneself or putting pressure on others to quit. The problem is the difficulty of objectifying these practices, which, as we will see in the next section, are characteristic of pathological organizations that do not generate much in the way of welfare and satisfactory relationships. In any case, this analysis would require extensions and revisions that exceed the objectives of a modest prologue, but which the specialized literature has already addressed in a temporal perspective (Peccei & Van De Voorde, 2019).

Secondly, and derived from the above, the delivery or alignment with the business or institutional project. This is a complex section because the organizational “labyrinth” is in the hard core of the MH, and indirectly also with the MS. I am going to exemplify the subject within the area that I know best, having been at different levels of university management for more than three decades. When in 2005 we were in the midst of a debate on adaptation to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), the uncertainty surrounding the change in the management model (accreditation processes on the administrative level) and the measurement of the teaching-learning model (ECTS credit on the teaching level) generated great instability in university organization. Indeed, an ←14 | 15→institution with a tradition of functioning with medieval roots, of which it retains some overlapping rictus (power sharing, promotion systems, etc.). At this stage, some levels of institutional government promoted a culture (MS) against what was an inevitable transformation. As a result of this situation, I published a small plea (Cabaco, 2007) highlighting the opportunities which this new scenario could imply (organizational level, expansion in curricula, incorporation of ICTs or equal opportunities in the professional career). The reflection was either applauded or openly denounced by those who suffered from the limitations of the system or those who felt the privileges of the status quo, respectively. In reality, it was neither intended to seek support for a cause that was unstoppable, nor to widen the agenda of “institutional enemies”. But the experience referred to above is very suggestive that change is a complex process, not easy to implement and requires consensus and fluid communication. In any case, then and now, an alliance between the resources of the HM and the possibilities of the MS would have achieved more effective and efficient organizational results. This challenge is also more relevant at the high levels of qualification and knowledge management (Salas-Vallina, Alegre & Fernández Guerrero, 2018).

Because to facilitate these processes of change, at this time, cognitive ergonomics in Virtual Learning Platforms (VLPs) is a challenge for digital immigrant teachers, consensus must lead the implementation. This requires courage (we have already pointed out the perverse role of its reverse side, which is fear), but this quality is not action disguised or overacted as arrogance. The MH promulgates flexibility and a good dose of empathy to tune in to the views of the other (employees and users). And, in a complementary way, it is necessary to develop a pedagogy of management, communication in short of “selling the product” (MS). This should also be done in two directions: inwards (the human capital that has to develop the new product) and outwards (the users for whom the services are intended). The paradox is installed when different representations are “sold” in both directions and it becomes a schizophrenic reality (the EHEA is a threat, it was the internal message, and the university is totally adapted to the EHEA, which was the outward advertising). In the end one can survive in a schizoid way, but it is a seriously pathological experience. Indeed, if we change the EHEA to the current COVID-19, the above-mentioned duality could still be valid. As Bendell, Sullivan, & Ornstein (2020) rightly justify, extraordinary situations should not prevent the application of the principles that ←15 | 16→we know work (“avoiding distance” in psychological terms), although the fear of the business community and the uncertainty of investors is an important variable to consider in threatening situations (climate change, pandemics, etc.).

Details

Pages
252
Year
2021
ISBN (PDF)
9783034342322
ISBN (ePUB)
9783034342339
ISBN (MOBI)
9783034342346
ISBN (Softcover)
9783034339742
DOI
10.3726/b17867
Language
English
Publication date
2021 (March)
Published
Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Wien, 2021. 252 pp., 28 fig. b/w., 23 tables.

Biographical notes

Rafael Ravina Ripoll (Volume editor) Luis Bayardo Tobar Pesántez (Volume editor) Araceli Galiano Coronil (Volume editor) José Marchena Dominguez (Volume editor)

Rafael Ravina Ripoll (PhD) is doctor and business organization professor at Cádiz University and coordinator of the Iberoamerican Group of Multidisciplanary Studies on Happiness in the Salesian Politecnic University of Ecuador. His research and publications focus on happiness management. Luis Bayardo Tobar Pesantez (PhD) teaches and researches in the areas of SMEs and is coordinator of the Iberoamerican Group of Multidisciplanary Studies on Happiness in the Salesian Politecnic University of Ecuador. His research interests also include finance and credit. Araceli Galiano Coronil (PhD) is a professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication at University of Cadiz (Spain). Her interests are in the role and effects of big data and social media in NGO as social marketing tools. José Marchena Dominguez holds a doctorate in contemporary history from the University of Cádiz where he is a full professor. He specializes in the history of ideas, society, and culture.

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