Creativity and innovation for corporate happiness management

“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many.

things which escape those who dream only by night.” Edgar Allan Poe (1988).

Abstract

In the system in which we are currently inserted, happiness and work seem to be completely exclusive words and without any possibility of association. The following study intends to show that it is possible to find a balance between happiness and work (Csikszentmihalyi in Gestão qualificada: a conexão entre felicidade e negócio, Bookman, Porto Alegre, 2004), by diagnosing the level of happiness shown by people in their working environment’s, proposing solutions to enhance happiness and productive in certain enterprise’s staff (Tidd and Bessant in Innovation and entrepreneurship, Wiley, London, 2007; Gestão da Inovação, Bookman, Porto Alegre, 2008). It is necessary, hence, an analysis beyond the happy-unhappy dichotomy when observing the different happiness levels presented in the routine and in the working hours, based on the interactions between creativity and innovation (Amabile in KEYS to creativity and innovation: user’s guide, Center For Creative Leadership, Greensboro, 2010; Sawyer in Explaining creativity: the science of human innovation, 2nd edn, Oxford University Press, Cambridge, 2012; West and Richter in Handbook of organizational creativity, 1st edn, Taylor and Francis, New York, 2008). Furthermore, this article shows that it is essential to combine the present’s happiness to a long-term project, an optimistic vision for the future (James and Drown in Handbook of organizational creativity, 1st edn, Elsevier, San Diego, 2012). To evaluate the work and a person’s life, this article develops a Multi Criteria Model of Work Organization and Evaluation and a Map of the Corporate Happiness Levels as a conscious path through workplace, collaboration in the enterprise, the marketplace and society, up to the personal and social life of a subject (Kamel in Artesão da minha própria felicidade, 1st edn. E-papers Serviços Editoriais Ltda, Rio de Janeiro, 2007). It offers ten practical recommendations to raise corporation rates of happiness. Accordingly, this paper proves its relevance by offering reference material to professionals and enterprises who search changes in its current personal management policy, willing to move towards a society with increasingly fulfilled professionals, happy and productive in their own employment.

Background

The current discussion around innovation and creativity as propellers for happiness is present in our daily lives, since society seems not to have tracked the technological changes related to means of production, preserving ideas that were typically from other productive systems, which do not fit the current reality anymore. The sociologist Domenico de Masi summarizes this concept: “(…) The workers – increasingly cultured, specialized and educated – would be ready for these creativity tasks if their intellectual fertility was not frequently castrated by an outdated industrial organization, that still enforces them to follow rules that were made a hundred years ago, focusing semiliterate operators responsible for the assembly line and already widely unsuitable to impregnate the invention continually intended by the market’s rapaciousness for new products” (De Masi 2003, 2005).

Christensen et al. (2006) says that around the world, countries, individuals and organizations spend a significantly amount of Money trying to solve social problems—many times in vain. However, how to explain bad results? Such organizations rarely affect a larger population, satisfactory with simpler solutions. “The disruptive innovation model overturns any sector, by bringing simpler alternatives, however satisfactory, to an underserved group.” It touches a large range of organizations and economic sectors, clearly indispensable in times which technological race improves its practices and interpretations of daily life. And in fact we should seek simpler measures to improve social repercussion”.

The flexible capitalism in our days corrodes personality and weakens the values once fundamental (Sennett 2000). We are producers, and, at the same time, victims of a regimen imposed in an authoritarian way, where corporate and personal happiness are taken for granted in order to maximize profits, no matter what. Sennett describes in its own “Corrosion of Character” the path to follow to become “healthily self-sufficient, based on its own time control”. He considers work routine the flexibility and legitimacy of work and life ethics.

The typical worker’s alienation of the capitalism model of production is a key factor to understanding this system, characterized by the existence of private property, division of manual and intellectual work and the usage of the work as a commodity submitted to the laws of the market (Marx 2013). Therefore, there is a contrast between the working class and the means of production’s owners, once there is a conflict between classes when it comes to values and objectives. A panorama of incredibility and lack of openness, hence, is created, stimulating the standardization not only of the work that was concretely done, but also of the social relationships maintained in the working environment. The latter, in this way, tends to be considered something beyond the true life, the one enjoyed when the working hours are over, which blocks creativity and innovation and delegitimizes the concept of happiness in the workplace.

This research intends to infer how the relations between innovation and creativity affect corporate happiness management. Further, seeks to identify in the so-called innovative and creative professions the drive of this vocational sense in the new Entertainment Engineering research area (Kamel 2006, 2012; Vogel 2011; Wolf 2003) and which of it can be expanded to other areas of knowledge.

Methods

This paper has both quantitative and qualitative methods, exploratory and descriptive. Therefore, we have made a research and a quantitative and qualitative evaluation with two entertainment market professionals through a questionnaire and models developed together with UFRJ’s Industrial Engineering Students (Kamel 2005) during the Work Organization and Evaluation discipline along the first semester of 2015, which will be exploited as examples of the proposed models at the end of this article (Thiago et al. 2015; Crelier et al. 2015).

To do so, we chose, in between ten papers presented in such discipline, each covering entertainment market professionals, two examples that best show the wok quality enhancement of the subjects, along with the development of innovation and creativity for managing the corporate happiness.

Bibliographic researches in books, scientific articles and websites as well as research-action works were used as procedures to conduct this study. The latter is executed in a space of interlocution where the authors in charge participate in solving problems, with special knowledge, proposing solutions and learning while dealing with a real situation. In this universe, researchers play an important articulating role when they stay in touch with other interested university extensionists and consulters. Possible manipulations must be under the control of the methodology and ethics (Thiollent 2011).

Establishing variables and research indicators as a category of analysis, the data will be compiled using the Multicriteria Model of Work Organization and Evaluation (MATO) for a quantitative (10 criteria on a scale of 0–10, receiving an assessment of the average current status) analysis and the Map of Corporate Happiness Levels (MNFC) for a qualitative analysis, in order to consider both of them in the diagnostic process.

Therefore, MATO and MNFC, consolidated by a few years of classes and in the specialized literature, backed by the research-action, proved efficient to evaluate quantitative and qualitative the relations between wok, innovation, creativity and happiness.

Basic concepts in corporate hapiness

After World War II, with the pronounced decline in Taylorism and Fordism production, the American behave motivational phycology offered solutions to the production and productivity problems by pointing a positive view over goals to be achieved (Fleury and Vargas 1994). It’s clear in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory (1954) that through this needs shows the way to the next level of positions and wages political structures as wells as Herzberg points with hygiene factors and Argyris’s mellow personality.

Ever since the paid employment regimen, an ever-growing amount of subjects stands out for its own human qualities and the ability to improve resources and potentialities in a long and sustainable way (Csikszentmihalyi 2013). This appreciation is frequently pointed out in harmonious and balanced subjects, capable of gathering wok competence, abilities and efficiency to the joy and affection they sustain in their personal lives. Actually, bringing to their personal lives respect and hard work. In this scenario of reciprocity and learning, one compartmentalized does not fit, but someone integrated in all circumstances. A person who contributes with own successes and failures, with own commitment, dedication and respect for one’s personal pace of work within the team (Lyubomirsky 2008).

Bringing such concept to the reality of the Brazilian organizations (Bruno-Faria and Alencar 1996; Bruno-Faria 2014), it is possible to notice that; somehow, this method of management is already a part of the professionals and successful businesses universe. The organizational environment (Cummings 1965) along with the ability to observe and point out factors in the production cycle of the product, as well as in the fundaments of the working and valorization process, such as an increase of knowledge, a clarification pause, a deserved gratitude and a recognition of the results achieved create in the working team the positive experience of cooperation (Lyubomirsky 2008). The main impulse is to unite work and satisfaction, as it is established that productivity increases in a direct proportion to the satisfaction of the involved staff, bringing benefits. Those are faster subject on making important decisions, being more creative and proactive and more fulfilled and calm, less selfish and more helpful, less affected by diseases and accidents, with more friends and with a healthier social life, apart from reacting in a positive way to situations of adversity.

According to Navarro (2004) happiness is an ability that can be learned, developed, enhanced and managed in all fields of life, including business life, by following the footsteps bellow:

• 1. Measure its own performance as employer and, thus, allowed better management;

• 2. Attack the pointed-out and prioritized problems, particularly in the authoritarian leadership management. This is fundamental, as measuring and not doing anything is worse than not measuring;

• 3. Adopt practices of web communication, to spread the changes in all hierarchy levels.

It is called happiness management, achieving common goals to organizations in innovation and creativity (Siegel and Kaemmerer 1978).

Lyubomirsky (2008) points out that the working world is in constant and silent revolution. Innovative business begin to realize that the incentives model by its own is dated, and though the reward is its decisive, in a world changed by crisis, wages and bonuses are no longer that fascinating. The search for a greater porpoise, a new generation raising in the market and the reinvention of offices converge to an ideal long forgotten; happiness in life, work, society, education, relationships, projects.

The humor contribution in this scenario is very clear (Lang and Lee 2010). It shows that enterprises have a long way to track in person management policies to become more productive and lucrative, as well as guarantee its staffs fulfills and wellbeing. Is there a link between happiness and routine?

Organizational creativity

The specialized literature about Organizational Creativity is gains power and relevance mainly from the late twentieth century (Styhre and Sundgren 2005; Shalley and Zhou 2008), based on previous studies in psychology and management. Its development can be pointed out after Hitt (1975) publishes an article showing the creativities importance in all fields of organization as well as the importance of a better usage so the creative talents in the US. Another relevant fact is the creation of innovation management magazine, exclusively for studies and theories of creativity and innovation (Puccio and Cabra 2010). We begging the twenty first century with Kauffman’s (2006) International Creativity book.

Personal, group and organizational creativity depends on arrangement and climate where one develops its own procedures (West and Richter 2008; Kozbelt et al. 2010). Some of the differences between the environments can be individual, historical and personal—while others are general—such as freedom or the support and appreciation of originality (Amabile 1983, 1990). The organizational climate surveys for creativity include positive and negative factors for creativity related to national culture, external environment, organizational culture, organizational structure, climate, and physical space (Puccio and Cabra 2010). Additionally the studies of corporate creativity by Albrecht and Albrecht (1987), Alencar (2012) and Amabile and Gryskiewicz (1989) who researched a type of scale to evaluate the progression of innovation and creativity; as well as Drazin et al. (1999) and Dul and Ceylan (2011).

Creativity

According to De Masi (2003), ‘‘creativity is the synthesis of the primary thinking—unconscious f-, and also the synthesis of the rational spheres, composed of knowledge and abilities, and the emotive sphere, composed of emotions, feelings, opinions and attitudes.’’ To sum it up, ‘‘creativity is not only the synthesis of fantasy and concreteness, but, beyond it, of managed emotions and enforced techniques’’. Once the new idea is conceived in a confused way inside the subconscious, where it goes through a dark phase of incubation, passing through the areas of managed emotions and enforced techniques, assuming, after it, a precise physiognomy and takes shape in the conscious.

The fantasy area (primary thought) is known by its unconscious emotiveness and the concreteness area (secondary thought), by its conscious rationality. On the other hand, managing emotions consists in transferring ideas from the unconscious and idealization area to the conscious and reflective area, without taking their originality, which would force them to be turned into limitless ideas, in projects that can be developed to be truly creative products. To have interjected ideas, nonetheless, means to possess the complete domains of necessary techniques for the creative act, hence, necessary to transform fantasies in concrete work. ‘‘A composer must use the piano to test a song he is creating, but, if he does not know the piano execution techniques well, his mind will be absorbed by the choice of the correct notes and it will distract him from his composition. Only when having the techniques demanded by his art the creative person will have his mind unblocked and will be able to use it for the construction of the invention.’’ (De Masi 2003).

A classic example of a creative person to De Masi is Michelangelo:

Michelangelo was an artist with an extraordinary geniality not only because he idealized, with seventy years old, the dome of Saint Peter’s basilica; he was a great creative genius because, besides idealizing it, he could impose his project and gain Papa’s attention, he could push forward to make it approved and financed such a bold work, he could get together and manage a big amount of bricklayers, specialists, carpenters and architects, he could make it happen for twenty years, up to the day of his death, in a historic construction that he knew he would never see ready.’

While describing the corporate environment that encourages creativity, the author defines a ‘‘platonic symposium that unites work, reflection, friendship, collaboration and leisure, with a smooth integration, producing at the same time amusement and knowledge, well-being, play and invention.’’ (De Masi 2003, 2005)

Jazz is the best example of workgroups in a corporate environment. ‘‘If we put in a continuum all forms of collective creativeness, maybe we would have the organizational innovation on one side as a maximum example of long-term and increasingly creativity; on the other side we would have the jazz, maximum example of creativeness the constant changes an essence, concentrated in each performance. Jazz, representing the highest musical expression of the twentieth century, reaches perhaps the extreme limits of the value of the group’s creative process, as a perfect synthesis of interjected techniques and managed emotions, from African fantasy to American concreteness.’’

Creativity and innovation

Innovation is present in almost all discussions and theses on human labor, and many authors associate their research creativity. Amabile’s (1988, 2010) and Van Gundy’s (1987) researches about organizational innovation and creativity as well as Haner’s (2005) study in creativity and innovation space creations, are backed by Kelley and Littman (2001) art of innovation and Saweyr’s (2012, 2013) human innovation science.

Success in innovation only occurs when achieving ideas and implementation. The starting point in innovation is the idea to improve aspects of operations and should became a practical reality to able to benefit the organization (Tidd and Bessant 2008). We may even be brilliant in the art of innovation (Ferraz 2002).

Amabile (2010) reveals, “Managing innovation doesn’t sum up to exclusively on awakening creativity but also knowing how to guide and enjoy it. It is about balance, flowing ideas in one hand and making sure the results benefit the organization on the other, with reasonable deadlines and spends. Managing innovation means to balance creativity with a control dose”.

As previously mentioned, prioritize the evaluation of qualitative and quantitative performance is mandatory part of a good management of corporate happiness.

Thus, creativity and innovation are not synonymous. Creativity generates ideas that innovation puts into practice, in addition to solve the problems that may arise. “Scale the project, correct errors and revise prototypes requires an open mind.” Therefore, interdependent processes are associated with and complement each other, so that the definitions coexist.

Happiness corporation

The quest for corporate happiness because of the creative and innovative being peaks by facing positively (Barbara 2009) the definition of tasks, rewards and incentives in different companies and corporate environments (Fleury and Sampaio 2002; Ferraz 2002).

Aristotle was the first to systematize happiness, and, even today, we rely on your ideas. No doubt, from the time of the Greek philosopher to the present day, there is no consensus on the exact definition of what is happiness, but most people have a sense more or less intuitive about what is to be happy.

Scientists have been opting to use the definition of a professor at the University of California, Sonja Lyubomirsky (2008) author of the book The How of Happiness and one of the top researcher in the field. She defines happiness as the term that refers to the experience of joy, satisfaction or positive well-being combined with the feeling that our life is good, it has meaning and worthy. This definition refers to two aspects of happiness that can be understood as precise experience or also a permanent feeling of background that permeates our existence.

Happiness and well-being are achievements we pursuit with positive psychology, a psychological study conducted by Martin Selingman, author of the best seller Authentic Happiness, leading for 15 years a movement to spread the subject around the US. The main purpose of positive psychology is to catalyze a shift in the focus of psychology, surpassing the only concern in repairing the worst things in life, for the construction of positive qualities (Barbara 2009).

Specifically in corporate world, the labor market is constantly on the quiet revolution. For decades offering money as an incentive, and virtually the only to their employees. Innovative organizations begin to realize that this model is crumbling, and although the pay is still decisive, the search for a higher purpose, the arrival of a new generation to the market and the reinvention of offices converge to an ideal long-neglected: happiness at work, in society, in education, in relationships, in the projects (Kamel 2007).

Given all the knowledge acquired in the last years of studies and research and still grounded in key thinker’s considerations, I created a project focused on education and in the corporate world that are essentially social and focus on developing skills and abilities necessary to the preservation of different markets (Seligman 2002).

Between the theory of academic studies and real life corporate daily life, one needs to make a series of reflections on the purpose and values engaged in the work, because well-being and happiness at work are truly possible! Such a discovery has revolutionized business and the lives of many people. Proof of this is already observed in the corporate world concern about the mental and emotional physical well-being of professionals (Csikszentmihalyi 2004). In this scenario no longer fits a compartmentalized professional but rather integrated in all circumstances (Kamel 2007). The global trend is to combine work and satisfaction, because it is proven fact that productivity increases in direct proportion to the satisfaction and well-being of those involved, a condition that only brings benefits: profit, recognition, fulfillment, peace, joy and well-being.

Management of corporate happiness

The genealogy in the organization of work, developed during the course of Organization and Work Assessment from Industrial Engineering Grad./UFRJ, studies a range of authors, from Putting Out-System and Factory System (Decca 1988), through Taylor and Ford (Fleury and Vargas 1994), the School of Human Relations and Semi-Autonomous groups. The notions of each type of labor organization are added to the models as values for quantitative and qualitative evaluation. We further note an overview of the work process as ethical appreciation of the individual Marx (2013).

Objectively the first MATO stage assiduously translates the assessment, attention, will, punctuality, productivity in a statement, which added to the qualitative assessment of MNFC allows us a fair and thorough evaluation for the sake of those working for companies towards corporate happiness. Thus, according to the criteria used by both models, involving the concepts of creativity and innovation, someone is regarded as happy in the exercise of their professional function if it has a good evaluation in MATO and MNFC.

These methods, therefore, serve as a parameter to get to a corporate happiness algorithm, what would be a useful tool to enterprises interested in increasing its employee’s performances raising their satisfaction, also improving society itself when focusing happiness as an indispensable variable in the workplace.

After the definition of the three research parameters, this study will present the models used in the diagnostic of corporate happiness based on the grades of the MATO and the MNFC schemes.

Model of Organization and Evaluation of the Work (MATO)

It consists in a model based on a participatory construction as it expects that each worker evaluated opine and give information about his or her productive activity. The main goal is to make a diagnostic using ten quantitative concepts, assigning grades for each one of them, obtaining an average of each person, considering every criteria. The diagnostic of the main criteria scores helps to plan proposals to improve the work conditions shown.

This criteria used is obtained through the genealogy of the work organization, taking into consideration its productivity, flexibility, autonomy and participation. Hence, the verification of the antecedents of this organization includes organogram, career and salary plan, incomes, flowchart of production, value chain and current criteria from working evaluation and performance (Kamel 2005).

A specific questionnaire is offered to each person asking about his or her workplace and its relation with the company, encompassing punctuality, cooperation, collaboration and management. The orientation is to observe the product or in which parts of the product each worker is being responsible for in the process of work and valorization. It is identified, that way, privileged interlocutors and which sectors are serial, mass, in batchers, intermittent, specific and/or special production.

It is possible to identify a group of workers having the same profession, including the administration, to define a form for the MATO at the same time we can also apply it individually, and, beyond it, to compare individual and collective MATOs, or to draw a parallel between the individual, personal and collective perspectives, in order to reach a high threshold that contributes to the development of the working conditions in the enterprises.

In this way, the participative construction of the multicriteria model of evaluation considers the way each worker sees, understands and does his or her job and by which criteria he or she will be assessed. The development and the application of a new OAT model from the chats and interviews conducted with workers makes it possible to elaboration of hypothesis for the fixation of the study’s object. A classic hypothesis is the critical point where productivity and safety are still compatibles, or in which forms autonomy and flexibility interfere in the production chain. We evaluated, in addition, how the relation capital/work is based on productivity. This diagnostic, with its validated hypothesis, make proposals of short, medium and long-term actions possible, considering equations of costs and benefits (Kamel 2005).

After consolidating the average results derived from workers using this model, we come to a qualitative assessment of productive activity: the Map of Corporate Happiness Levels.

Map of the Corporate Happiness Levels (MNFC)

The qualitative map of the productive activity takes into consideration six spheres where a person is inserted. Workplace is the first sphere to be considered, followed by enterprise/institution, society, market and personal life.

Participation and alienation (Fleury and Fischer 1992) are both part of the key criteria, related to all spheres of actuation. In workplace, it is noticed how the work contract is managed, according to the participation and alienation of each person; in the relations between the workplace and the enterprise, including the routine of work, control and punishments conditioned to the rules presented in the working contract; in the company’s sphere the rules are considered according to each situation. Good formalities between the person and other departments and the food manners of the social conduct are evaluated; the social sphere supports a perspective of the work of this person focusing his or her relationships with professional colleagues and with society itself. The social assessment of the work is done according to the criteria of participation and alienation, or, how much the person participates in the workplace and how it is related to the company and to society. These vectors are extended to the market and social life spheres. The market generates what Guerreiro Ramos (1989) once called ‘‘the socially inducted necessities’’ and influences a behavior conditioned to the ambition of increasing remunerations. In the democratic thinking, society shapes the domain of the market, companies and products. Opposed to this view, it is observable that the marked influences people more than society nowadays. Moreover, finally yet importantly, there is the personal life, which sphere refers to how the character and the personal values are involved in the working activity.

Experiencing the models

Once the two models were shown above, we will observe their applications using two cases taken from studies developed by students of the Industrial Production faculty at UFRJ, in the Organization and Evaluation of the Work discipline.

Case 1

The first case presents a manager of a private primary and secondary school. Once having the dream of allying his formation in Industrial Production with his passion for teaching, C.F., together with three friends, planned, for a year, the creation of a new course/school, which would fit into the primary and secondary schools business (Thiago et al. 2015).

As a shareholder, the interviewee, together with his other business collaborates (his three friends), takes big decisions in the company, such weather to create or not a new unit and to decide its localization. Moreover, as a shareholder, his main goal would be to generate profits. As a manager, thus, he has a great focus in the financial part of the institution, but he also takes decisions such as the academic calendar. Concluding, as a physics teacher, his role is to pass on knowledge to his students, so that they can learn in order to do well in the college admission exams, having good results. The applied MATO can be seen below, with weights attributed to each criteria.

Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the manager

The 8.58 average is considered very high, which revels a high degree of involvement of the C.F. with his enterprise and a coherent discourse with our thoughts about corporate happiness. In our first interview with C.F., we could already identify some innovative characteristics in the organization. As the focus and main goal of the company is the good results in the college admission tests and this is an intense period for the ones preparing themselves for it, the company always tries to turn the study and the dedication into something fun. Events and mockery videos, for example, are made in eve of important exams such as the ENEM, an admission exam for most public universities in the country, to incentive, stimulate and amuse students. The General Rehearsal, which is the theater play they make before ENEM, is already a certain event in the agendas of many people, including students, ex-students, relatives and friends. It happens because apart from stimulating and giving positive energies to the people doing the exam, they also amuse all publics. We can see below the MNFC, in which the vector represents the path followed by these spheres in our lives: from the inside to the outside (Table 1; Fig. 1).

Table 1 MATO with the manager’s grades.

Fig. 1

Source: Prepared by the authors

MNFC of the manager’s participation.

The groups quantified the scores, after many interviews and analysis of the interviewee’s work. It is worthy to highlight the concept Planning/Project, which scored the highest, and the concept of Flexibility, which scored the lowest in the diagram.

As for Planning/Project, it is possible to notice that the interviewee gives special attention to it. He believes that without planning the academic year with its classes, lectures, meetings and all other activities that occur in the organization, its results and productivity would be endangered. As the group entered his classroom, in the first interview, they could see a full-written board with all the events of the years already planned, proving his point concerning this concept.

Flexibility, on the other hand, surprisingly did not score high. As a shareholder and manager, he has a greater freedom to schedule his appointments, choosing the unit where he is going to work and missing some days of work according to his personal necessities, etc. However, this liberty is reduced when he works as a teacher; his work schedules are better defined just as well as the unit he is going to work in.

According to the analysis performed and the model of evaluation of the work, the manager has an 8.6 average score in his workplace. He is very conscious of what happens in the enterprise and his participation grades are high. His relationships with society are due to social projects developed by the school, stimulating students to participate: donation of win clothes, donation of toys and ride to communities to bring joy to Children’s day, blood donation (most recent project of the company), recycling, among other actions.

Regarding the market in which the organization is inserted, it can be said that it is a competitive one, where competition was already great in the moment of its creation. It is important to state that the scores obtained in the college admission exams rule this market. Even though it works as a school too, the greatest visibility of this type of institution is found in these scores, since they are much disseminated in bus, internet and newspaper advertisements. The studied school is still growing up in this competitive market, obtaining more and more better scores and the satisfaction of consumers.

In his personal life inside the institution, the interviewee has a great relationship with his business partners (as they were already friends before it all) and with his workers. He has also a great relationship with students, also being called by them to represent the graduating classes of high school’s senior year. Besides, the manager is a fulfilled worker, for the fact that he manages to unite all his knowledge obtained during a lifetime (Faculty of engineering and experiences in the same sector), which gives him the opportunity to focus in what he likes the most (the management and the physic teaching parts). Finally, we can say that he always tries to act according to his values and ethics, even trying to send it on to students and people around him, since he has, as a teacher, the role of an educator too.

Another innovation of the company was the creation of an application to cellphones, in which students have access to academic calendar, study programmer (personalized for each student, in academic orientations), grades, resolution of questions, parody and classroom videos and the whole content of School/Course. In this form, the student can be no matter when or where, connected with school.

Finally, there is a partnership with a brand of clothes. They released, together, a t-shirt line with intelligent humor. This partnership’s goal is to turn the study environment of students more pleasant and fun. All profits obtained with sales is donated to charitable organizations. Furthermore, it is a way of stimulating the students’ creativity, as they can suggest stamps for future T-shirts.

It is notable, hence, that even though he uses creativity in his daily life (for example, in the classroom, C.F. always tells jokes related to physics to make students learn easier); interviewee and enterprise possess a more innovative character. It was mainly what brought recognition and the success of the company over time and guaranteed its space in the market, apart from the good results they have been obtaining.

Case 2

The second case is about a carnavalesco, a man who works with carnival, from a samba school from the special group (Thiago et al. 2015). L.V., graduated in Fine Arts School, has always had the gift of drawing and, since he was a child, he knew that he wanted to do it for the rest of his life. Therefore, still in the graduation period, he followed his dreams, going to some samba school’s sheds looking for opportunities. He achieved, firstly, to be a carnavalesco’s assistant and now, after getting the recognition of the carioca carnival, he is the main carnavalesco of a renowned samba school from the special group.

As a carnavalesco, the interviewee has the responsibility of creating the carnival of the samba school. He is the one who creates costumes, floats and the samba theme. For this purpose, a research is made in all types of material available (internet, books, magazines, works of other carnavalescos), in order to propitiate an intelligent, fun and beautiful approach of the theme chosen for the parade. Thus, the carnavalesco’s main goal is to help, with his creations, the samba school to be the champion of the carnival.

Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the Carnavalesco

Once again, the groups graded these scores after a series of interviews and analysis of the interviewee’s work. The Planning/Project concept will be developed again, as well as the concept of Automation/Technology, which obtained by lowest score (Table 2).

Table 2 MATO with the Carnavalesco’s scores

As for Planning/Project, the interviewee already starts to make researches in books, internet and all materials in hand once he receives the possible themes of the parade. This way, he starts to plan, in his mind, his ideas and his items of clothing, before sketching them on a sheet of paper. This planning needs to be solid, as his ideas can be sent, afterwards, to the tailors, who need to understand exactly the creation they can produce.

Concerning the concept of Automation/Technology, L.V. uses, up to the present, the hand drawing method. According to him, it is a way of being more true to his original ideas. Thus, many computer programs help in the creation of parades, even though the interviewee does not use any type of technology beyond the internet used in his researches, and, because of it, he scored low in this concept.

According to the analysis undertaken, L.V. possesses a great knowledge of his work process, what makes his relationship with the workplace very good since he dominates the activities and tasks that should be done, mainly as a designer and idealizer of the parades.

However, as being a recent carnival worker, developing now the second parade of his whole career, the carnavalesco is still a little bit inexperienced, what makes him lose parts of his domain over the workplace for not having the practice of how to deal with new changes in the market. These adversities force him to learn from practice, especially in the costume and allegories production sectors, but not reaching the creative part of his work.

In the MNFC, his relationship with the enterprise is very strong, as he creates the main product of the samba school, its parade. Nonetheless, he cannot let that his relationship become just professional and individualist regarding the formal theory of doing his job only. He needs to participate and to be present the more he can in the samba school events, exploring the community and having a more humanistic relationship with the compounds and workers of the company. In this way, his social ties happens through arts and the entertainment of the spectators, in a cultural relationship.

The choice of good samba themes that transmit a great cultural content and if possible make the spectator think would be good from a carnavalesco who worries about society not only in the sense of satisfying it with the parade, but making people think about issues of their routines.

In his personal life, he needs to be careful not to have his values and personality corrupted by the success he has been obtaining over the years, not losing his ‘‘down to earth’’ personality, with his values regarding friendship, kindness, humbleness, etc.

In one way or another, the fulfilment of his professional life is very attached to his fulfilment as a person, mainly for having a participatory personality and for working with what he likes and having the gift for it since his childhood.

In the artistic world as a whole and more specifically in the carnival business, the market defines the value of a person. If the worker is a champion achieving his tasks, gaining prizes and obtaining the recognition of the media becoming famous he will always be valued independently from his personality and values. Having said that, it is necessary to be careful not to have values corrupted in order to meet the demands of the market.

Comparing the two cases presented above, it is observed that, differently from C.F., the carnavalesco possesses a more creative personality. He creates from the samba themes costumes fitting his style, a mix between baroque and design school. It is due, primarily, to his more traditional roots.

In a nice counterpoint to the L.V.’s style, we could mention Paulo Barros, a carnavalesco who demonstrates to have a more innovative personality, bringing to the parade ideas that were never seem before, such as the choreography of the main troupe from the Unidos da Tijuca samba school in 2010, which consisted on changing their clothes instantly during their performance.

When comparing both examples given, there were very compelling hypotheses for further research. Does the creative, which crosses the entire production chain, will always be innovative in its working process? In addition, its corollary: Is the innovator always less creative? Alternatively: All creative is innovative but not every innovator is creative? Which is the best relations between innovation and creativity? Whenever a creative innovates, it aims at happiness projected into the future? These comparisons raised many ways so that this research continues.

Four stages of happiness and project

After presenting the cases and to conclude the evaluation made up to this point, we take as a references some authors (Csikszentmihalyi 2004; Lyubomirsky 2008) that state that it is necessary to have a combination between being happy in the present and having a vision for the future. Following this thought, anyone can be found in one of the stages below:

• 1. Unhappiness in the present & with no vision for the future: the most negative, in which the person is lost and depressed;

• 2. Happiness in the present & with no vision for the future: the stage of the transitory happiness, not tenable and superficial;

• 3. Unhappiness in the present & with a vision for the future: stress in the present, typical from a slave of the status quo;

• 4. Happiness in the present & with a vision for the future: the stage of full performances and energization.

Therefore, it is possible to map different phases in which people can pass through related to their jobs in order to create the basis of a project for the future using what is being done currently in the enterprise. It is worthy, hence, to invocate the classic thought of the methods engineering, in which we can approach a workplace, a production line or an enterprise to obtain better results in terms of productivity and corporate happiness.

Practical recommendations for corporate happiness

Ten practical recommendations were elaborated to raise the levels of happiness in the organizations, being assessed and reviewed through the development of the study. Innovation and creativity are the essential pillars to reach corporate happiness, being used to build a collaborative work, based on the dialogue.

The first topic concerns the intentionality of the dialogue. The dialogue between enterprise and collaborators does not occurs at random; it is purposeful, intentional and objectifies to internalize the processes of innovation and creativity of the defined group. The first step is, thus, to define the intention of the dialogue. The clarity of the purposes is a key factor for the beginning of a relationship that intends to be durable measured as corporate happiness. The participation of the collaborators is fundamental in the evaluation of the work in a specific department or sector, for a controlled and democratic evolution, or, if it is a small company, of the whole structure. These purposes must be based on ethical values, respect between the staff involved and with goals that bring benefits to everybody.

The second step is to create adequate conditions to provide a good relationship, where the people involved can talk as equals. To create a level of equity in the dialogue means abdicate and cease the power chains. To preserve the differences and use them for the benefit of everyone is a way of straightening the individual in the collectivity. To promote a space of alignment of information in order to stimulate innovation is the main aspect to be developed. The introduction of the working evaluation models MATO and MNFC must be done in a common agreement between all participants. It can be done with meetings, conferences, visits, interviews and a series of activities that provide the acquisition of information about the company and vice versa. To identify talents and abilities in the group and to develop it by demanding tasks and responsibilities, creating conditions to start a job rotation system, is a way of straightening the participation and importance of each member of the group.

The third step proposed is the creation of a posture tool, in which the innovative and ethic attitudes will be valorized, defining conducts to praise collective development, establishing references of creative actions that contribute for the strengthening of the group and setting limits for any issue that may prejudice the dialog. This tool must be built in common and finalized by consent. The main elaboration of it means a progress in the dialog and in the purposes that the group wants to achieve.

An intense collaborative process must establish priorities. Closed groups tend to create conflict zones between participants and non-participants, since the decisions taken in-group affect directly other interested sectors. If activities succeed, there is also a tendency of defining privileged levels of power over the non-participants, which can also generate a conflict zone. Openness to participation is, hence, fundamental to create dialog condition that may favor the common good. The fourth step purposes, therefore, to define a group format that permits the entrance of new members, and if there are many departments, the definition of priorities. According to the group format, the openness to new members or specific moments to the compilation of information can be constant. In all cases, it is necessary to propitiate integration condition for new participants with equality of voice among all the members of the group.

The fifth step deals with the establishment of condition for that the conflicts appear, so, it is the only way for them to be faced. If it is a necessity, some specialized and specific professionals can be added to the group in order to facilitate the processes of dialog construction and data collection that subsidize the main argumentation about the conflict topics, favoring essential reflections based on concrete data concerning productivity and innovation. Besides, different opinions must also have a reserved space in the debate and in the promotion of the dialog.

The sixth step is the valorization of the parts involved, gathering their cultures and what can be offered for all of them. For the equal participation in the dialog, it is important that there are respect and admiration between them. That is the basic principle of a work team founded in innovation and creativity. Aspect that do not stimulate pride or addition of values neither for the enterprise nor to the interlocutors, must be the reason for transformation, otherwise they will cause permanent conflicts, discomfort or stagnation. It is essential that from this point a great notion of the project have already been developed as a whole so that creativity as a way of management and participation can be seen throughout the project.

For the seventh point, we have the sharing of decisions regarding the interests of the parts. Decisions involving investments, application of resources, strategies of development and impact activities, must be presented with quality and credible information, permitting a broad debate creating conditions to add values for everyone.

The eighth aspect is the group members’ valorization in other forums of social participation, such as communitarian, business, among others. Dialog is a permanent learning, and to be used as a transformation tool, it needs to be full of information and experience shared by its members. To build a story of transformation, hence, it is indispensable to live the present, to participate and deeply know reality itself. The true commitment stimulates, therefore, the longing for transformation, adding more than words to the dialog, as the lived experience is shared.

Reciprocity is the ninth step, as the capacity of exchanging, giving and receiving ideas provides a harmonic dialog between the parties, because of sharing efforts, experiences, knowledge, resources and results. Reciprocity presupposes proactive attitudes and permanent counterparts, in which each one of the parts feels appreciated and rewarded when adding value to the other, sharing and producing meanings.

The tenth step is the permanent search for dialog. The communication between enterprises and collaborators is, for the most part, a technique dialog, innovative and creative, moved by the necessity of understanding, even though it is essential to evolve to the dialog charged with senses and experiences to achieve transformative results. Everybody learns with the dialog. From the simplicity of opening for the other, of knowing the other, it is possible to build something new, to build a history.

These ten steps are a purpose of action for the companies searching for a compromise concerning a change in the relationships with collaborators, based on the dialog process. The improvement of this process depends on the experimentation and analysis of the purpose. In the tenth point, dialogs are mature and he group has all conditions to promote significant and lasting transformations in the direction of corporate happiness.

As stated earlier, these two examples were chosen as excellent professionals who demonstrate a high degree of commitment to their company and their work and received very good quantitative and qualitative evaluations. They are professionals of Excellency and an accurate analysis of these models developed to interpret them, serve to obtaining the level of happiness of each example.

The Practical Recommendations for the school’s manager’s example follows on the chart below:

	Example 1—school manager	Practical recommendations 1
1—Dialogue	Manager, partner and teacher in dialogue with the students and the teachers and parents is very satisfactory, which is the schools main objective	Schedule regular meetings with parents and teachers
2—Suitable conditions	The school has the best technologies available in the market and has the innovation of an app	App maintenance
3—Tools for enhancing innovation and creativity	Exposing in a school information board, in the app and in the classroom the innovations and creative activities of the week	Chart, app and classroom
4—Collaboration	High school collaboration can increase the low score on flexibility; better care of your schedule so you do not need to work or meet on class’s time	The organization of the Agenda
5—Conflict	We believe that conflict and placement of ideas allow additions to obtained knowledge and innovative activities	Provocation to partners, teachers and students
6—Team Culture	The team culture builds dialogue when presenting several innovations of creativities with solution	Talk to other schools in the same market
7—Sharing	Share with partners the difficulties especially with flexibility. Share with teachers the results and share with students the innovations of examples	Organize time on the agenda
8—Enhancement participants from other forums	The event with the presence of parents is a remarkable innovation for pre-university course	Not to cause discomfort to students
9—Reciprocity	Herein lies the role of the educator with its partners, teachers and students	Kindness
10—Permanent search of dialogue	Here appears the difference, always pursuing new creative classes for the course/school	Learning

The Practical recommendations for the example of Carnavalesco below:

	Example 2—Carnavalesco	Practical recommendations 2
1—Dialogue	Carnavalesco, designer, costume designer and creator. The dialogue with the school, community, events and percussion components and wings is quite satisfactory. Central goal of a carnival	Schedule regular meetings and be present in the community
2—Suitable conditions	As it is one of the great traditional schools of Rio, gathers very good working conditions. Biggest problem is the annual sponsorship	The School Project parade next year
3—Tools for enhancing innovation and creativity	In this aspect has its special asset. Highly values the costumes including innovating, creating in their own school colors, and even using other shades	Use of Apps to design and to record the designed costumes Costumes database
4—Collaboration	A good dialogue with the community gets partnership in the use of costumes, the choreography and the development of the plot	Display design, sketches and models in school weekly rehearsals
5—Conflict	The green and pink school got used to enter the parade being identified by their colors in all wards. Innovated and created lush costumes in school colors but divided very well on the wings, used, and abused to various shades	Of learning colors and overview of the school
6—Team Culture	Dialogue from the storyline made in May/June of the previous year to the parade next year	Report the purpose of the story in the rehearses
7—Sharing	He devoted himself to the fullest during the whole year to innovation and creativity in costumes He has been on a Carro Alegorico that had problems during the parade	Professional confidence
8—Enhancement participants from other forums	Participate in school events throughout the year	Assiduity
9—Reciprocity	Even quite young for a carnavalesco, he became champion for the community, where he married and was captivated throughout the year	Bonds
10—Permanent search of dialogue	Search the championship through dialogue with the community and with other carnavalescos	Search the championship

Conclusion

One of the main premises of this study was to establish the difference between a creative and an innovative person. We have pointed out, thereby, the difference between the development of creative and innovative minds, defining concepts of creativity and innovation to be considered as references. Creative people, hence, was seen to be the ones who participate in the completely productive chain. Innovative people, on the other hand, create new mechanisms of action for each part of this process. Creative and innovative are more involved, therefore, than people who do not appreciate their work positions. We have analyzed cases of people with good evaluations, in order to draw parallels, identifying motivational, and behavior patterns between them.

As a strong point, it was mentioned MATO and MNFC models as elements of evaluation and analysis to achieve corporate happiness. The MATO model to generate a dialog with the workers being assessed and to establish the criteria to be evaluated, as well as its posterior feedback with a score, which was proven fruitful. The MNFC model presents on its graphic an efficient qualitative vision since it gives a more open point of view to the analysis of people in their work environment, considering enterprise and society in relation to market and personal life.

The qualification of the personal growth model regarding corporate happiness considers and relates the positioning of people involving current happiness and projects for the future.

Both cases deliberately chosen as working position in the company in the entertainment industry and education clarify our models followed as an example to demonstrate the corporate happiness. The definition of corporate happiness based on creativity and innovation really points a way to improve the working conditions based on the dialogue.

Happiness can be perceived as tasks to be done in order to achieve an everyday state of innovation and creativity in many organizations and institutions. Learning every day seems to be constant to adults. How to face the other, the otherness of each within the work teams? Each attitude towards the imperative of innovation and creativity at work should and must be considered, supported and encouraged and even rewarded so that the management of corporate happiness is presented as a reality.

The management of corporate happiness as a methodology is shown here as an algorithm likely to be developed as an application specifically for each company. A work team can be shaped from such criteria defined and oriented in order to always present improvements in its results.

All recommendations, if applied in an efficient way, create a space where every collaborator feels comfortable being a fundamental part of the whole process. It produces a state of personal and professional satisfaction that is reflected in the positives evaluation of the MATO and MNFC models, and, consequently, in the happiness levels inside the company.

However, it is worth noting to state that the limited application of the models do not validate them on statistic terms, in such way that this study also serves as an incentive for the creation of new prototypes of models and applications for the management of corporate happiness. It is also important that other cases, for example, of low scores in the MATO model, would be highlighted in future researches. The concept of corporate happiness will be increasingly present in the academic world in posterior developed studies. It is expected, concluding that this study contributes for the spread of the concepts of happiness and that its relevance can be more general and applied in our society.