Years ago I visited several eastern European countries, whose economic systems were still of the Communist "command and control" variety. One thing that struck me was how sullen and disengaged the workers in these countries seemed to be. They looked depressed - just going through the motions of their jobs with zero enthusiasm,  much like the stereotype of a DMV worker (but worse). What was going on? What had squelched the spirit of these workers?

Some clues are in this sketch of working conditions in East Germany during the bad ol' days:

"In East Germany's 40 years of bureaucratic socialism, people had little chance to express initiative at work. Behavior by and within companies was highly regulated by central planning. Middle- and low-level management and workers had little input into how things were produced. Because there was no feedback via the market, there was little pressure to change things at workplace. As there was no competition with other companies, there was little incentive to develop high-level goals. The company goal was not to reach a high productivity level but to not make mistakes. Managers in the East were by and large more conventional and risk-avoidant than managers in the West, and they showed little independent thinking or achievement orientation. For these reasons, managers were not interested in workers' initiative and even imposed negative sanctions." Frese et al (1996) p. 40

Let's go back to happiness, personal initiative and their overlapping feeder streams, which included:

  • Sense of control: you can actually change a situation, allowing you to set goals
  • Sense of purpose: you're motivated to achieve your goals
  • Self-efficacy: you're pretty confident you can do what's needed to get closer to your goals
  • Sense of progress: you are moving forward and getting closer to your goals

In bureaucratic systems like the one described above, workers are hemmed in by rules, procedures, and protocols.  Going above and beyond the call of duty is not rewarded and may even be punished. There's not much workers can do to improve their situation; they're cogs in a machine, with little sense of purpose except to get through the day and avoid trouble. 

Too much focus on avoiding bad things, not enough focus on approaching good things: yet another recipe for diminished well-being. 

There's plenty of research to bear out the ill-effects of focusing too much on avoiding undesired outcomes. Individuals who favor "avoidance goals" tend to feel less in control, less satisfied with their progress, and less competent than individuals with lots of "approach goals".  In other words,  their happiness feeder streams have become mere trickles. No wonder all those Eastern European workers so seemed depressed - they probably were depressed, or at least unhappy.

Next: are there any lessons to draw here?

References:

Elliot, A. J. & Friedman, R. (2007). Approach-avoidance: A central characteristic of personal goals. In B. R. Little, K. Salmela-Aro, & S. D. Phillips (Eds.), Personal project pursuit: Goals, actions, and human flourishing (pp. 97-118). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

Frese, M., Kring, W., Soose, A. and Zempel,J. Personal initiative at work: Differences between East and West Germany. Acad. Manage. J. 39, 37–63 (1996). doi:10.2307/256630

Pychyl, Timothy A  Approaching Success, Avoiding the Undesired: Does Goal Type Matter? https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dont-delay/200902/approaching-success-avoiding-the-undesired-does-goal-type-matter Accessed at 5:05pm on 09/28/2017.