The quality of our lives can be enriched by warm and generous relationships, just as it can be diminished by those that are cruel and cold - inside and outside the workplace. It is the people who move through our daily lives at work, at home, on the street, anywhere, at any time, who can bring each other happiness or unhappiness. Happiness at work is both an individual and a collective responsibility, as are productivity, results, and growth as a whole.
Education and Its Reach Into Work Life
Education in schools and universities extends its influence into work life, into organizations, and into how people interact with one another. If individuals grew up in more competitive environments with their peers, they will likely bring that behavioral profile into their work relationships. As Morin (2004, p. 11) wrote: "An education can only be viable if it is an integral education of the human being - one that speaks to the whole, open totality of the human being, not merely to one of its components."
Shared Responsibility for Organizational Results
A critical factor for successful organizational management lies in the organization's capacity to promote a process of continuous learning at all functional levels. Today, it is understood that all leaders and employees must jointly assume responsibility for human and organizational performance. Management, therefore, must be shared - and this demands improvement in interpersonal relationships among all members of the organization, across all hierarchical levels.
As Aguiar (2014) clarified: "We are all responsible for what happens in a group, in our lives, and it is very common not to understand this responsibility. As it is called in law: 'joint and several liability' - each person is fully responsible for what happens. Any one of us must step up and take initiative. Everyone must feel individually accountable." In an organization, this is no different. Everyone is a co-participant in success or failure. In truth, there is no problem that belongs to just one person - it belongs to all. While responsibilities are shifted to others or to other departments, time and energy are wasted rather than invested in finding solutions.
Developing Organizational Intellectual Capital
This learning process aims at developing organizational intellectual capital, which requires people to continually expand their capacities and abilities to understand complex systems, clarify visions, and refine shared mental models. It demands mutual understanding, openness to dialogue, and a genuine desire for everyone to succeed in their daily activities.
Organizations must commit to continuous improvement and develop leaders with a new vision - one built on a culture of learning. Those committed to learning can spread it throughout every dimension of the organization: promoting integration, stimulating intrapersonal and interpersonal development, and making clear how interdependent everyone is in reaching higher levels of excellence.
The Whole Human Being at the Center
People's performance is directly related to how they experience their relationships with others in the organization - and also with those outside it, since everyone is connected in the web of life. The impact of personal matters on work is growing ever more visible. The old adage that one should never mix personal and professional life is losing its meaning, as the concept of the whole human being increasingly takes center stage in science.
The current behavior of individuals and their worldviews can be understood through the roots of physics, which - like all Western science - can be traced back to the early period of Greek philosophy, in a culture where science, philosophy, and religion were not separate. Organizations need to be seen as living organisms, as living systems that shape themselves and transform.
References: Benjamin Teixeira Aguiar, saltoquantico.com.br; Edgar Morin, "The Seven Complex Lessons in Education for the Future," 9th ed. (Sao Paulo: Cortez; Brasilia: UNESCO, 2004).