Knowledge Update

As we all know, the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), has emerged in China as early as 2019. It took a few months for this epidemic to turn into a global pandemic which already infected millions of people. The unprecedented spread of this virus around globe has prompted many governments to take unprecedented actions such as nationwide curfews. Flights are grounded. International travel is almost forbidden. Tourism and restaurant business were down. Large scale events were all postponed and cancelled. We have not yet seen the full impact of the economic shock, but it is expected to be as deep as the one experienced after the sub-prime crises. 

The resulting economic recession due to the virus situation are having devastating effects on many households. The lockdowns have particularly affected the poor and the unhealthy. The question of whether this will be a temporary shock or a long-term trend is still unanswered. In this article I look at the impact on global poverty and hunger outlook from sustainable development perspective. Specifically, I discuss how the current situation is going to affect the UN sustainable development goals: SDG #1 (no poverty) and SDG #2 (zero hunger).

SDG 1: No Poverty

SDG1 aims to eradicate poverty in all forms by 2030. There is a special emphasis on eradicating poverty among vulnerable segments of the society. Unfortunately, the spread of the deadly Coronavirus has only increased the woes and sufferings of the poor and the vulnerable segments of the society. Millions of people lost their jobs. Those who work in daily jobs were affected the worst. The sudden loss of income and poverty was particularly evident in migrant communities such as laborers. Not only their families are at risk of extreme poverty, but also they found themselves in a desperate situation. Adding to this problem, many migrant workers are stuck abroad without any income as many flights are grounded.

However, the world has also realized the importance of social security during crises. The countries that have solid social security systems with unemployment benefits fared way better than those with do not have social protection. Perhaps, their success could set good examples for future labor policies. Also, the fiscal and monetary stimulus packages initiated by leading economies are likely to boost economies back in track. The impact of COVID-19 has brought the issue of poverty in the limelight and many individuals. Similarly, the world has also realized the need for unity in providing access to basic services, such as improved drinking water and sanitation.

SDG2: Zero Hunger

SDG 2 aims to eliminate all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030. In order to achieve this goal, the governments need to promote sustainable agricultural practices; offer their citizens healthy and affordable food. The initial social response during the pandemic was to stock as much as possible. However, due to travel restrictions, transportation of agricultural produce was negatively affected. Many farmer markets were closed, forcing the farmers to dump their produce. Equally important, the food-processing factories were shut down due to Covid-19 cases among workers.

The pandemic has also forced people to cook and eat healthy food at home. The boosted demand for healthy food is likely going to have a long-term effect on consumer preferences. Thus, we might observe sustained demand for organic and healthy food. Hopefully, the demand for junk food might be reduced in long term. One thing for sure is that food security will be back in national security agendas and may take some funds from defense into agriculture. The investment in agriculture might also serve to reduce poverty among rural households.

[1] An extended version of this article covering the impact of Covid-19 on UN-SDGs are available as a working article here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3592933

 

 

 

 

In early civilization, the transition took place in Homo Sapiens' lifestyle from Nomadic to Neolithic, which means from ‘hunting and gathering’ to ‘agriculture and settlement’. They started embracing the domestication of plants and animals, which is considered as the first agricultural revolution. This change in lifestyle laid the foundation of religious, social, and political ideologies and structures. Depersonalized systems of knowledge such as writing, sharing, arts and architecture, division of labour, trade, etc. started to get established.

The first industrial revolution witnessed mechanization, which is mainly attributed to the invention of the steam engine, and lead to the shift in the focus from agriculture to manufacturing. It is believed that this phase of the industrial revolution started in the year 1784 when they used water and steam power to develop mechanized factories for production of chemicals, iron, coal, yarn, and clothes.

The second industrial revolution, which is also known as the Technological Revolution, is mainly credited to electrical energy and telephone. This phase started in the year 1870, by rapid industrialization and standardization to develop, railroad and telephone networks, water and gas supply, large-scale production of iron and steel, use of petroleum, internal combustion engines, automobiles, radio, and television. These developments lead to an unprecedented movement of people, ideas, and integration of economies.

The third industrial revolution started from the year 1969 and is associated with the emergence of electronics, automation, computers and information technology. This phase introduced semiconductors, personal and mainframe computers, and the internet as a digital revolution. This pervasive digital technology drastically disrupted industries by automating their production and supply chain globally.

The fourth and current industrial revolution, which started from the year 2010, centered around digitalization, robotics, and machine learning. It is not only transforming industry but also people’s life and work. In this phase, manufacturing technologies and processes are including cyber-physical systems, Internet of Things, Industrial Internet of Things, cloud computing, cognitive computing, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, smart sensors, 3D printing, augmented reality, advanced human-machine interface, etc.

The two interesting facts worth highlighting from these four industrial revolutions are, successive industrial revolutions have taken lesser time to happen, and its crusade is shown below

 

 

These industrial revolutions also brought the concept of industrial capitalism, factory system and more complex division of labour. In the early 19th century, industrialised Britain started relaxing its protectionist approach to capture the global market through free-trade. And then gradually, capitalism was carried across the world in the name of Globalization. Now, what we are experiencing is brazen capitalism at a global level, dominated by industrialized nations. There is no real respect shown by the states and statesmen for human values, peace, health, environment and natural resources over the creation of wealth.

Nature was alarming us in the form of global warming and extreme weather conditions due to environmental degradation, but we kept on ignoring it for quite some time. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic broke the boundaries of states and diminished the differences between the rich and the poor. It reminds the Sapiens that what really matters are 'human values' and 'Co-existence with Nature' over capitalism across the globe. Now after a decade of the fourth industrial revolution, author foresees the advent of fifth, which will start latest by the year 2022, and will certainly force us to take a pause on growing voracity of capitalism and start focusing on 17 Sustainable Development Goals of United Nations, which 195 countries have already agreed to achieve by 2030.   

 

 

 

 

Investment is the key to economic development, which is a continuous process, for it is a respond to the ever-rising human wants. Investment, in the case of underdeveloped countries, of which the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was one just a few years ago, are called upon to break the shackle of the ‘vicious circle of poverty’ (VCP) and put them on the road to economic development and prosperity.

The rise of the economy through investment is, perhaps, better demonstrated in the United Arab Emirates, which has risen from a low level of economic development to a world-class economic development. The UAE is considered to be a high home for national and international investments, and private as well as public investments. For example, the recessionary ecosystem which appears to be ever haunting the business world owes to the depressed demand and investment conditions to stimulate which is an easy money/credit policy that is universally in vogue.

According to the IMF, the year 2019-2020 is likely to end in with 90 percent of the world in declined growth rates. The current great depression which began with Covid-19 in December 2019 hints the need for business firms to think of their investments in terms of social needs and values, without giving up their profit goals or objectives. There is already a thought heading to this direction— the Social Value Investment, a recent book making headlines in this field. The Social Value Investing by Howard W. Buffett, the grandson of Warren Buffett of the renowned Berkshire Hathaway, and William B. Eimicke, from Colombia University -- business icons and pride of the United States of America who continue to hold their heads high despite being buffeted by friends and foes alike. The book is a well-researched one. Utopian Entrepreneurs and business people, so to speak, live and work for profit, and then believe that there is nothing wrong or immoral with profits in business term because without profits, which are rewards or “wages” of entrepreneurship and enterprise, there won’t be any entrepreneurial or business activity and no production and delivery of goods and services.

There won’t be that "making of bread and making of wine" so to speak. These concepts are familiar since Adam Smith expounded the principles of business of prices and profits, moving the economic system in an atmosphere of letting the business alone or laissez-faire, which prioritizes the freedom of enterprise or production for profits rather than for social purposes. Smith was the father of the Industrial Revolution and Trade Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries when industrialists and traders were the ‘monarchs,’ but which cannot be the case today. So, social value investing cannot be held to be a Utopian concept that cannot take off.

Berkshire Hathaway is considered to be an example of social purpose or value investment, which is not making too much of Berkshire Hathaway. Warren Buffett is known for simple living, high wealth creation, and philanthropy in billions of dollars. In any case, the case for social value or purpose investments is quite strong in itself and seems an investment inevitability in our uncertain and disturbed world. Social Value Investment appears to be the first condition for realizing sustainable development goals (SDGs), after MDGs. Companies consider it their best.

Corporate Social Responsibility is a different game, which many corporations do not take seriously. Hence, the decision of French President Macron to tax non-tax paying stellar MNCs. Governments, too, are not above the blame game. The golden rule of investment is not just to think of the ‘self’', but also of ‘society', to which one owes a debt of Return and not of default or write-off. SDGs would be a distant dream than their fixed time horizon which is 2015-2030.

There are rays of hope spread across the horizon in the form of the millennial start-ups, especially in India where millions of young women and men with education and well-paying jobs at home and abroad are moving into the town and villages with solutions to the problems in their country in every field, especially in its poor-paying agriculture. They worked with a 24/7/365 work schedule of farmers. There are various ventures from organic farming to the production of environment-friendly agricultural goods. In the UAE, the move is towards a Green Economy. In the field of housing, the premier iconic house of Tata’s, has a Nano housing for the poor in India. They were also makers of the common man’s Nano Car. There seems a need for Nano-tractors through Social Value Investment, with which the passage of time is sure to develop momentum.

The last few weeks have proven how mankind is adaptive to difficult and awkward situations. The current crisis of the Coronavirus known as COVID-19 has dictated the behavior of humans and restricted us to stay at home. Now the question is, “will we stay put?” The answer is “of course not,” but how will we be able to do our jobs and complete the tasks assigned to us. For us, particularly the educators, it was not hard to find alternatives, as one of the most obvious and easy substitutes for the conventional classroom is online live teaching. Education, both sides of the coin — whether teaching or learning, has no limits and does not believe in obstacles or boundaries. With the help of information technology and its fast-paced evolution, education can be easily facilitated anywhere across your home town, city, or even globally. The dramatic evolution in telecommunications and connectivity has powered and equipped the teachers and students with information technology skills that help in the process of education. It has made a wider range of courses available online and students can learn wherever they are. Today, for instance, I had a class where some of my students attended from their workplace. Online education is now part of our normal lives as we are surrounded by a wide range of technologies and live video streaming that makes online classes more engaging as the traditional classes, proving that conventional education is changing drastically. Technology goes hand in hand with education nowadays as new techniques and skills can be acquired by both teachers and students, ensuring the quality of education that students get which they can use to attain academic success. Now, teachers can conduct live online classes and also produce digital content of almost the same quality and content created during the conventional classes. With the state-of-the-art technology available today, the classroom has reached the optimum settings equal to or sometimes better than the traditional settings. With the Learning Management Systems, smart contents that include textbooks, figures, audio files, video files, and live video lectures, education has been made easy in both ways. Beyond that, technology made the traditional syllabuses to create customized learning materials for certain subjects as mentioned, and as a result, teaching and learning materials are being digitized with new interfaces that are made easy to help the students of all academic grades and ages. Of course, not to forget shedding light on the valuable role of Artificial Intelligence in the education process. The dynamic nature of Artificial Intelligence makes new opportunities for teachers-students interaction that was not available a few years ago. This is all because of the variety of top-notch technologies and dynamic contents as compared to the outdated materials and documents in fixed static environments of the past. Moreover, we must agree that Artificial Intelligence has a great potential to excel and expedite new synergistic teaching pedagogies that helps in the learning process.

 

In the 21st century, or more specifically, in the digital age, the enormity of challenges confronting oral literature is immense. This might be a corollary of the unprecedented and pervasive presence of the virtual communities nowadays that without a doubt weakened a key element in oral literature, which is the physical community. Thus, the digital revolution has significantly contributed to the spread and dissemination of new forms of cultures—such as low cultures, for example, video games, popular culture, etc.—that negated and marginalized oral literature and the art of storytelling and its artistic and aesthetic forms. Surely, every one of us or most of us have been exposed to different kind of folklores that have greatly contributed to the process of our socialization. However, what we should bear in mind is that those stories were meant to be transmitted and preserved as strong historical artifacts for their significance in enduring and employing moral and cultural values. Generally, kids tend to admire stories.

 

This comes from the fact that stories can create a very good image in the minds of youngsters. Hence, storytelling in this regard can be seen as an important tool to teach kids and tell them about their values and ethics. Undoubtedly, quarantine can be seen as a golden opportunity to rethink the concept of physical community and more importantly to teach and tell our kids about the value and centrality of oral literature vis-à-vis their cultures and places of origin. Oral literature as a literary genre that is composed and transmitted orally from generation to another is a considerable means for sharing the indigenous oral cultures which may vanish in front of the beast of urbanization and globalization.

 

The question that may raise itself here is why should we think about the art of storytelling only during quarantine? Key elements in the creation of an arable soil for storytelling are space, time, and the storyteller. Seemingly, the quarantine has created an atmosphere or a situation where individuals particularly parents have to spend most of their time at home due to the circumstances. Thus, even though quarantine is temporary, one cannot gloss over the fact that it forces all of us to think painstakingly about the value of physical communities as much as we could. Finally, let's seize the opportunity during this current quarantine and inculcate the culture of storytelling in the minds of our youngsters and contribute to rescuing this wonderful art from vanishing. Stay home, educate and entertain your kids using the art of storytelling.

 

UAE recently hosted a series of international forums on Non-communicable diseases (NCD’s). The Third Global NCD (Non-Communicable Diseases) Alliance Forum 2020 was under the theme of "Bridging the Gaps" was inaugurated by His Highness Dr. Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, UAE Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah. Sheikh Sultan previously highlighted the extreme need to hold an international gathering of like-minded individuals from across the globe, saying that NCDs have become a burden to every country[1]. His Highness stressed the need to combine efforts that protect people’s health and wellbeing by promoting healthy habits and promoting campaigns against bad lifestyle choices. Jose Luis Castro, President of the NCD Alliance, in his speech drew attention to the crucial role of civil society to stimulate equitable progress by 2025 and 2030: “Here in Sharjah, we took critical steps as a movement to identify how we can accelerate the implementation of life-saving and transformative policies; and how to strengthen our movement to deliver change”[2]. 

 

Chronic diseases require long term, costly and specialist treatment. 

Combating NCDs remains a major economic challenge to countries celebrating an increase in life expectancy rates as a result of improved economic status, but are bemoaning increases in the so-called lifestyle diseases. Approximately 300 million people in the world have diabetes, with the number predicted to rise above 435 million by the year 2030 (IDF, 2013) In the Gulf Corporation Council region (GCC) investments made in healthcare since the first oil boom has started paying dividends. GCC nationals are enjoying much longer lives where average life expectancy across the region has increased from 60 years in the late '70s to 75 years in 2012 (IDF, 2013; Hu, 2011). However, the same GCC nationals are likely to suffer from health complications where the Western lifestyle has replaced the traditional lives and traditional eating habits. 

Urbanization and rising personal wealth, for example, have prompted many a local population to reject active outside activities and instead embraced fondness of processed foods and detestation of physical exercises. Chronic diseases and obesity-related illness, previously uncommon in this region are on the rise. The US management consultant McKinsey & Company forecasts that the total cost of healthcare delivery in the Gulf will increase to nearly $60bn by 2025, up from $12bn in 2007 (Rahim, Sibai, Khader, et al, 2014).

 

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - a major economic powerhouse in the Gulf region- recent data suggest that 20% of the population has been diagnosed with diabetes and another 18% are at risk of developing it. Diabetes rates in UAE and the Gulf region are forecast to triple by 2030, from 1.5 million cases in 2000 to 4 million in 2030 representing the second-highest prevalence rates in the world (Ibid). The health cost of diabetes management is likely to rise to 43 billion dollars imposing a substantial financial burden not only on the UAE economy but also on many households in the country. The forum (in one of its series) concluded by observing that civil society has the mandate of working with governments to enact policies that promote healthy lifestyles for example increased physical activities and improved diets.  

 

 The World Health Organization estimated deaths from NCDs in the UAE to be 65 per cent out of 9,700 deaths. In 2017, the Ministry of Finance in the UAE introduced fiscal policies (value-added taxes) on selected goods and services. Such taxes are imposed for the primary purpose of achieving better health outcomes for the entire population. It is estimated that the UAE could raise a revenue of about 1.6 per cent of GDP from VAT in the first year following its introduction[3]. The proceeds of the food-related taxes could be used to fund or subsidize health programs and health insurance, diversify the government’s health spending away from the government’s direct payout. It is envisaged that taxes on sugar-related items like sodas and tobacco products will reduce consumption of sodas and tobacco products, eventually lowering levels of diabetes and diseases related to tobacco use for example lung cancer.  

 

Fast forward to February of 2020, the UAE government through the Ministry of Health, reduced the prices of 573 medicines, between 2 per cent and 74 per cent- the largest in quantity and quality for chronic diseases[4]. It is expected the reduced prices of medicines will ease the financial burden on patients and contribute to their access to the world's best and most modern drugs at affordable prices, especially those with chronic diseases. 

The 2020 forum was organized by the NCD Alliance in partnership with the local host organization, Friends of Cancer Patients. Nearly 400 delegates from 80 countries attended the Forum from 9-11 February in Sharjah, UAE. Delegates included representatives from 53 national and regional NCD alliances, civil society from cross-cutting areas relating to NCDs, youth leaders, academia, and people living with NCDs, NCD Alliance supporters, global stakeholders, and recognized champions. Over the course of three days, the delegates participated in 5 plenaries and 18 workshops, discussing NCD advocacy, building synergies, and sharing tools and strategies to further the NCD response[5].

 

REFERENCES

Hu, F.B. (2011). Globalization of diabetes: the role of diet, lifestyle, and genes. Diabetes Care,

34:1249–1257

 

International Diabetes Federation (2013). Diabetes Atlas. 6th ed. International Diabetes Federation. 

 

Rahim, H.F., Sibai, A., Khader, Y., Hwalla, N., Fadhil, I., Alsiyabi, H., Mataria, A., Mendis, S., Mokdad, A.H., & Husseini, A. (2014). Non-communicable diseases in the Arab world. The Lancet; 383(9914):356-67.

 

World Health Organization (2008). Nine voluntary global targets with a framework of 25 indicators to curtail the escalation of the chronic disease. 

 

 

 

[1] Gulf News Feb 2020

[2] Third NCD Alliance Sharjah 2020

[3] Shailesh Jha, an economist at ADCB Gulf News, June 2017

[4] Ministry of Health bulletin Gulf News Feb 2020.

[5] NCD Alliance report 2020

There are a lot of different investment opportunities in 2020 and because everyone’s resources are limited, people have to make a decision on where to invest their time and money. This decision is to a large extent depending on a potential return, but mostly on the need, willingness, and ability to take a risk.

The highest potential return and the lowest risk at the same time can be achieved if people decide to invest in themselves. Investing time and money into any form of education is usually the best investment people can make, especially when they are young. Learning a useful skill such as picking up a new language, designing a website, or developing an application for Android can bring a better paying job in the future, or even opportunity for starting their own business with less risk involved and greater success rate.
When thinking about starting a business, many people imagine a scary process of leaving a job and jumping into the unknown. It is important to realize that starting or running a business does not have to be a full-time activity. According to The Hartford (2018), 25% of the US citizens have some sort of a side business while continuing their full-time job. This research is suggesting that launching a side business is becoming a common practice and that in 2020 the field can become large enough for anyone to start their own venture.

To minimize risk even further, many ways of starting a business today do not require a large upfront investment. People only need to take advantage of this opportunity and implement their ideas in practice to reap the benefits in the form of extra income the business might quickly start generating.
The extra revenue generated by the side business is the most obvious reason why people launch new ventures. But the research is showing there are other reasons too. Many people feel stuck in their full-time jobs without being financially or emotionally fulfilled and the idea of starting a business offers them an opportunity to do the kind of work they enjoy.

While starting a business might still seem off-putting for some, others might realize that spending some extra hours on doing what they like thinking how to transform it into an income-generating business can eventually pay off. Moreover, the side hustle soon becomes a primary source of income and wealth for many.
When thinking about which business to start, people should first focus on their passions, talents and specific skills they have, whether work-related or not. This will increase both the motivation and experience needed to make the business successful.

While having a lot of extra money allow people to comfortably invest in a more passive, automatic way, investing in education or starting a business can be the best investment anyone can make in 2020 – whether to generate extra income or to simply spread the wings and get away from feeling stuck in the current position.

References:
The Hartford (2018) No Business Is Too Small for Insurance. Available at: https://mms.businesswire.com/media/20180925005605/en/680213/1/TheHartford_Side_Business_Survey_InfographicFINAL.pdf.

One of the determents of success for any person in the past was based on an intelligence test IQ, that measures memory, analytical thinking and mathematical capabilities, and thus the possibility of predicting future success in work. Recently, Emotional Intelligence also a determent of success which measure the ability to communicate with people and control feelings and skills of expression, as it contributes significantly to achieving success on many levels of life. There is no doubt that traditional intelligence and emotional intelligence play an important role in achieving professional success. But finally, in the digital transformational era and the field of Artificial Intelligence capabilities in work, and its skills for success, a new type of intelligence appeared that represent the ability of the mind to understand the changes in the environment in the right way and right time and take the proper action. The mind able to process a high level of analysis and the ability to adapt and response and deal with environmental uncertainty effectively. "Adaptive Intelligence" is not only the ability to understand new information, but also to be able to select the appropriate ones and discard useless information, as well as to overcome challenges and a conscious pursuit of change. This type of intelligence is coupled with flexibility, a passion for knowledge, courage and the ability to challenge difficulties and enjoy the skills of solving dilemmas.

Will the "Adaptive Intelligence" in the environmental uncertainty become more important for professional success compared to traditional intelligence? Technologies have dramatically changed the performance of many jobs and will continue to change. Having such skills would be better to do the work more quickly and accurately. And in order for the employee to maintain his/her role, he/she must acquire new creative skills that enable him/her to solve emerging problems as well as the ability to understand and communicate better and accountability with the use of human hyper intuition to have better performance results.

The three forms of intelligence are integrated to achieve success, as it helps the organization to overcome obstacles and improve adaptation, as the ideal approach to do what possesses traditional intelligence, emotional intelligence and adaptive intelligence together, which is not available to all, as "there are geniuses who are not creative", and intelligence without flexibility and adaptation alone makes one find it difficult to be the best. Today, organizations are looking for those who are able to adapt, where behavioral skills are the most important work today, and at the forefront of these skills is “preparing for flexibility, adapting to it and adapting to change".

The concept of cryptocurrency has been widely recognized in the last few years. These are digital currencies that make use of encryption for verification of a transaction. Bitcoin is a digital currency that was based on public-key cryptography. The major innovation in the case of Bitcoin is the decentralization of technology. The bitcoin database is distributed across a network of contributing computers, instead of storage of transactions on a single server. The database holding bitcoin database which is called “Blockchain” where blocks are added in the chain during the process of bitcoin mining. The mining process revolves around the solution of compound computational puzzles. In doing so, the miners receive the incentive of bitcoin rewards and transaction.

The bubble behavior of bitcoin is prompted by the noise traders which imply market inefficiency to increase, hence, there is a notion of experience of “fad” by the bitcoin market. The combination of different market news and events happen to have a strong effect in price volatility of bitcoin. The bubble-like behavior explains the increased volatility as a result of increased trading. The unsophisticated noise traders of bitcoin get easily affected by expectations and behaviors of other traders which can lead to “herding behavior, prospect behavior and heuristics behavior.” Hence, the decisions are mostly made in the light of heuristics instead of incorporating actual assessments.

From the behavioral finance point of view, the crowd activity literature is titled herding. The herding is described as a decision-making approach characterized by imitating other peoples’ behavior. It is also defined as a situation in which rational investors tend to act irrationally by imitating others’ judgments when it comes to making such investment decisions. It is stated that the herding factors affect asset prices significantly which this consider a part of the capital assets pricing theory. Moreover, herding can cause some emotional biases including conformity, congruity and cognitive conflict, the home bias, and gossip theories.

Traditional finance theory states that investors’ behavior is not significantly affecting the prices of assets. The argument behind that determined by investors’ demand that will be neutralized by the arbitrageurs’ transaction and by the trades, therefore, discounts the potential influence of the investors’ sentiment or investors’ feelings. Investors believe that they make their investment decision logically and rationally. However, the behavior finance theory states that investors’ behavior is significantly affecting the prices of assets. This indicated that behavior finance factors play a significant role in affecting investment decisions made by investors in the cryptocurrency market. As a conclusion, Behavioral Finance studies the psychology of financial decision-making. Most people know that emotions affect investment decisions. The behavioral finance holds out the prospect of a better understanding of financial market behavior and scope for investors to make better investment decisions based on an understanding of the potential pitfalls. The behavior finance factors play a significant role in influencing investment decisions made by investors in the cryptocurrency market.

Happiness in the workplace is a buzz word nowadays. Forums, discussions, workshops, and seminars are organized to guide us to the path of happiness. But is it really happening? This is a key question.  

Enhancing happiness needs a sneak peek in PERK where P stands for purpose, E for Engagement, R for Resilience, and K for Kindness. These four elements account for the happiness of employees in contemporary workplaces. A successful manager and enthusiastic workforce aim to attain PERK in order to be happy in the workplace. But again we stop to ask how to use PERK. Let me elaborate!

Every organization frames a mission and vision for achieving a set of goals. So it is important for employees to reflect on their core values and feel purposeful at work. Managers must instill a sense of passion and purpose through ethical means in the way employees perform their work. Further, the manager could also promote purpose by making core values explicit at the workplace, and implementing policies that align people’s day-to-day experiences with core values. As Swarthmore College Professor Barry Schwartz explains, we want to see how our progress is tied to meaningful, important, and self-transcendent impact in the world.

Engagement at work comes with enjoyment and fun. Managers and employees should include some playfulness, creativity, humor, and levity at work. It is also vital to develop a sense of ownership among employees. Flow at work is critical and organizations are now moving from hectic, meeting-clogged, multitasking and devise-notification laden schedule to more encouraging and uninterrupted periods of deep work concept. Some international organizations like Southwest Airlines and Zappos have earned a reputation for engaging employees in positive ways. 

Resilience is all about bouncing back to normal performance and productivity after setbacks and failures. The best technique for doing this is mindfulness. Being mindful can be the starting point of having a better opinion of self, revising our old learned habits of self-criticism and self-blame.

Managers can create a culture of being mindful. Further, employees can also be authentic in order to be more mindful. Mindfulness can be enhanced through non-work related wellness and charitable activities. Adobe’s Project Breath is all about building and sustaining mindfulness among the employees. 

Our last tenet of happiness at work is kindness. Being kind at work is practicing empathy and compassion, treating colleagues with dignity and respect, practicing gratitude and handling conflicts positively and constructively. Employees are urged to be good listeners and effective team players. Apologies also enhance respect and commitment in building trust and happiness at work. Georgetown University Professor Christine Porath’s book Mastering Civility explains being civil means building trust; sharing resources, feedback, and credit; and being a good listener. For leaders, civility skills are critical to avoiding the corruptive influence of gaining power.

Research shows happiness at work in essential for organizational success and achievement of its KPIs, mission, and vision. Using the tenets of PERK can enable enhanced happiness among employees at the workplace.