Employee Happiness - Digital Entertainment Market Case Studies

Happy employees excel at their work and are content in their lives. Eudaimonically happy employees are motivated to not only to excel in their work, but also to transform their lives and those of people in need. This research builds on the concept of personal expressiveness (Waterman, 1993), and explores two conceptions of employee happiness in a digital entertainment context. Specifically, hedonic happiness (associated with pleasure and enjoyment) and eudaimonic happiness (associate with personal excellence and ethics) are both important in the philanthropic service context (e.g., charities, social services) because they intrinsically motivate the performance of difficult service tasks. In the digital entertainment industry (e.g., novels, narrative-based games, role-play games, fiction film and TV), creating entertainment products with a social cause in mind is a task that requires high level of eudaimonic motivation. If successfully produced, the products not only enhance customer's experience, create social impact, but also increase employees'/service providers' happiness and social well-being. ?This research comprises of two field experiments conducted at two charity organizations, and 5 case studies from a group of novelists producing purposeful novels to endorse ethnic social justice.