1. KM and Happiness at Work
Can Knowledge Management
Tools and Techniques
Create Happier Employees?
Alexis Adair
October 2013

2. “Emerging research from neuroscience,
psychology, and economics makes the
link between a thriving workforce and
better business performance absolutely
clear... We’ve learned a lot about how
to make people happy. We’d be stupid
not to use that knowledge.”
Harvard Business Review, January/February 2012, p.77
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3. What is Happiness?
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4. Happiness – the Research
• Self-Determination Theory
– Deci & Ryan
• Flow
– Csikszentmihalyi
• Positive Psychology
– Seligman, Diener, Kahneman, Gibson,
Norton, Fredrickson
• Progress Principle; Creativity
– Amabile
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5. What Makes People Happy at Work?
• “happiness at work is wanting to be there” – KM8
• “I don’t grunt when I have to come in every
morning, I look forward to it” – KM2
• “I think when people feel included, they feel
happier” – KM11
• “We feel happy when we feel we belong
somewhere” – KM8
• “The deeper sense of happiness I think does come
out of a sense of connectedness to others” – KM3
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6. What Makes People Happy at Work?
• “It does make people feel more successful and satisfied,
happier … to have work they have some control over” –
KM4
• “I think obviously things like coaching and mentoring
have a direct impact on happiness” – KM7
• “people want interesting work where they can learn and
grow” – KM16
• “I think each person's happiness is defined, and this is
true for me, based on using their strengths” – KM11
• “letting people … use the capabilities they have or learn
new capabilities. … a sense of doing what they can do
well” – KM4
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7. What Makes People Happy at Work?
• “I think people are happy … when they feel as if
they’re valued in some way by the employer” –
KM14
• “They’ve got to really know that the other person is
genuinely interested in the kind of stuff that they
want to share” – KM8
• “there is somebody who cares about them” – KM10
• “you feel that you’re contributing to something, in
particular something bigger than yourself, it’s not
just about you” – KM8
• “did we make a difference today?” – KM11
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8. Coding of Interviews
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9. Coding of Interviews
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11. The Framework
• Autonomy
• Competence
• Relatedness
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12. The Four Domains
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13. 13

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18. How Can KM
Support Employee Happiness?
• “Knowledge management builds trust. … If you’ve
got knowledge management right, and you’re
developing relationships and sharing and
collaboration between people, that generates your
culture” – KM8
• “allows you to feel connected to other people” –
KM6
• “it does help to tie you to a wider network within your
company” – KM13
• “I think that the social networking aspect is the most
important element of the knowledge management
model” – KM3
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19. How Can KM
Support Employee Happiness?
• “people can see some of that value that they’re
bringing to other people” – KM14
• “I can actually make a name for myself by what I
share” – KM6
• “I think the employee benefits a lot from
participating, because they expand their
knowledge and increase their reputation.” - KM13
• “help me get through the day without as much
stress” – KM14
• “when my employees have been happiest, is when
they can do the job in a frictionless environment” –
KM10
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20. How Can KM
Support Employee Happiness?
• “enabling work with a range of KM practices and tools
strikes me as having a direct impact on people’s
happiness” – KM7
• “you’re able to do your job effectively because you can
always get the right answers to the questions that you
have” – KM6
• “… using it to improve their work processes” - KM3
• “… you can use something faster” – KM13
• “If you’re looking for something that you need to do your
job, you can find it quickly and efficiently” – KM6
• “I would think you’d get a fair amount of frustration
without pretty decent KM” – KM5
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22. An Additional Method for
Evaluating a KM Program
How many needs can you meet in each of the four domains?
Autonomy Competence
Relatedness
Removal of
Thwarting / Obstacles
The Work Itself
Individual
Cultural /
Organizational
Social
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23. Thank You!
Alexis Adair
MS, Information and Knowledge Strategy, Columbia University
alexisadair@gmail.com
@xaether
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