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The Thrill of Creative Effort at Work: An Empirical Study on Work, Creative Effort and Well-Being

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Abstract

The connections between creative effort at work and four measures of subjective well-being are studied using data on a sample of 922 Jewish Israeli adults who are salaried employees. The paper finds that self-reported creative effort aimed at making work more enjoyable is positively associated with global evaluation of life; with purpose and meaning in life, and with positive emotions. No significant link with negative emotions was found. This study also finds significant associations with three additional intrinsic features of work-creative tasks; independence at work and intellectual work-and various measures of subjective well-being, even when controlling for age, gender, marital status, having children, education, time worked, financial satisfaction, subjective health and religiosity. The robustness of the links between intrinsic features of work and subjective well-being demonstrate that work serves not only as a means to material ends, but also as a direct source of personal happiness, meaning and satisfaction.

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Notes

  1. For example: Dolan et al. (2008), Frey and Stutzer (2002), Layard (2005), Oswald et al. (2015), Weimann et al. (2015).

  2. “Employee creativity—defined as the generation of novel and useful ideas concerning products, services, and work methods—is essential for the continued improvement and success of organizations” (Zhang and Zhou 2014, p. 150).

  3. e.g. Binder and Coad (2016) found that only voluntary self-employment leads to improved job satisfaction and higher overall life satisfaction, whereas necessity self-employment to escape unemployment does not generate such benefits.

  4. As in World Values Survey Wave 6.

  5. The measurements are consistent with literature (e.g. Diener et al. 2010, 2013; Office for National Statistics 2015; Weimann, Knabe, and Schöb 2015). Oswald and Wu (2010) provide empirical support for the reliability of SWB data. For list of psychological literature discussing the validity and reliability of SWB data, see Blanchflower and Oswald (2004).

  6. Mainstream economic theory considers people beasts of burden (Skidelsky and Skidelsky 2012) who seek to satisfy their utility by the easiest path, i.e. with the smallest possible effort. Downey (1910: 256) presents two oft-quoted statements of the economic motive supporting this perspective: To satisfy our wants to the utmost with the least effort (Jevons); Men follow the line of least motive resistance (Davenport). Moreover, labor economics theory embraces the work as bad thesis (Spencer 2009), implying that work is merely the means to a material end without any utility derived from work per se.

  7. As A.C. Pigou stated, “There is a clear perception that changes in economic welfare [the level of real income] indicate changes in social welfare in the same direction, if not in the same degree” (quoted in Easterlin 2003, p. 3).

  8. There were another 170 respondents who did not complete the survey.

  9. Midgam Project, administered by Ayalon (2009).

  10. The options were: (1) 8 years, (2) 9–10 years, (3) 11–12 years, (4) Some high school, (5) High school graduate, (6) Some nonacademic training, (7) Non-academic training graduate, (8) Studying for bachelor’s degree, (9) Bachelor’s degree, (10) Studying for master’s degree, (11) Master’s degree graduate, (12) Studying for doctorate, (13) Doctorate.

  11. The average income in Israel for a single employee is NIS 9600/month. Is your income: (1) Far below the average income, (2) below the average income, (3) Approximately the average income, (4) Above the average income, (5) Far above the average income.

  12. There were also questions regarding the use of leisure time. We did not use these questions in our analysis because the way leisure affects well-being is beyond the scope of this paper.

  13. This question is taken from Rasciute and Downward (2010).

  14. Frey and Stutzer (2002) report, “Health and happiness are highly correlated, but this only holds for self-reported health ratings” (p. 56).

  15. (http://www.cbs.gov.il/kenes/kns_2_15_05.pdf).

  16. According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, of the salaried employee in the Jewish population in the year 2015, 51.6% are female, meaning that our sample represents appropriately the gender distribution among salaried employee in the Jewish society in Israel (http://www.cbs.gov.il/reader/shnaton/templ_shnaton.html?num_tab=st12_12x&CYear=2016).

  17. In the Jewish population in Israel between the ages 25–64, 68.3% are married. (Table 2.4, the Israeli central bureau of statistic. http://www.cbs.gov.il/shnaton67/st02_04x.pdf).

  18. 72.2% of Jewish families had children in 2015 (http://www.cbs.gov.il/reader/cw_usr_view_SHTML?ID=769).

  19. Data from Table 6 in the Household Expenditure Survey 2014. The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (http://www.cbs.gov.il/publications16/persons_income14_1650/pdf/t06.pdf). Note that the first age range in the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics is 25–34 and in our case 24–34. The last age range is above 55 which may include people above 64.

  20. There is no data regarding the salaried employees’ income relatively to the average income as we asked. There is data on gross monthly income per employee by deciles which is hard to compare to our data (http://www.cbs.gov.il/publications16/persons_income14_1650/pdf/t07.pdf).

  21. Note that according to the Table 12.7 in Statistical Abstract of Israel 2016, The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (http://www.cbs.gov.il/reader/shnaton/templ_shnaton_e.html?num_tab=st12_07&CYear=2016) 25.4% of the working force in Israel are high school graduates (in our sample 21.7%); 21% have a Bachelor’s degree (in our sample 20.5%, including those who responded that they are studying for a masters); 11.5% have a master degree (in our sample 9.5%, including those who responded that they are studying for a doctorate); 1.5% have a doctoral degree (in our sample 1%). It seems that our sample is not different from the working force in Israel as regards education. (https://www.knesset.gov.il/mmm/data/pdf/m02704.pdf).

  22. The average scores for life evaluation, positive feelings and negative feelings in 132 countries, as measured by the Gallup World Poll, were 5.36 and 71 (on a scale of 0 to 1 × 100) for positive feelings and 23 (on a scale of 0 to 1 × 100) for negative feelings (Diener et al. 2010).

  23. The average scores in 60 countries represented in the World Values Survey Wave 6 for Routine/Creative, Manual/Intellectual and Independence at work are 4.61, 5.12 and 6.45 (on a 1-to 10 scale) which is equivalent to 3.4, 3.75 and 4.63 on a 1–7 scale.

  24. http://www.cbs.gov.il/shnaton66/st03_13.pdf.

  25. Peterson et al. (2005) also report that gender is not statistically correlated with various measures of SWB including meaning.

  26. For example, it is known that optimism and pessimism are bi-dimensional measures and not opposite measures (Chang et al. 1997).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Department of Economics, Ruppin Academic Center, Emek Hefer, Israel

    Arie Sherman

  2. The School of Business Administration, The College of Management Academic Studies, 7 Rabin Ave., Rishon-Le’Zion, Israel

    Tal Shavit

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  1. Arie Sherman
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Sherman, A., Shavit, T. The Thrill of Creative Effort at Work: An Empirical Study on Work, Creative Effort and Well-Being. J Happiness Stud 19, 2049–2069 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-017-9910-x

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