By Joe Grimm

A new study confirms that happy workers do their jobs better, but it suggests that we shouldn’t settle for happy. We need to reach beyond happy to thriving.

Thriving employees are those who experience two qualities: vitality and learning.

“Vitality is the sense of being alive, passionate and excited,” says Gretchen M. Spreitzer, professor of management and organizations at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, according to the university’s news service.

Employees who experience vitality spark energy in themselves and others. Companies generate vitality by giving people the sense that what they can do on a daily basis makes a difference. Learning is the growth that comes from gaining new knowledge and skills. People who are developing their abilities are likely to believe in their potential for further growth.”

Spreitzer worked on the research with Christine Porath, an assistant professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business; Cristina Gibson of the University of Western Australia; and Flannery Garnett of the University of Utah. They surveyed more than 1,200 white- and blue-collar workers.

Workers who experience vitality and learning performed better, were more committed and satisfied, and experienced far less burnout.

Those workers also make better bosses.

The research, reported in the January-February issue of Harvard Business Review, also enumerated workplace qualities that help workers thrive:

• Empower workers at all levels to make decisions
• Share information because working in a vacuum is difficult
• Give quick and direct feedback
• Hire for civility and reinforce that kind of climate so employees remain open to learning and risks.

The implications for healthy diversity in that fourth quality are clear. The researchers say the qualities are interdependent. Missing any one of them can jeopardize all.

Joe Grimm, a consultant and adjunct faculty member of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute, recruited for the Detroit Free Press, Knight Ridder and Gannett from 1990 until 2008. He now teaches at the Michigan State University School of Journalism. He has run the JobsPage journalism careers site at www.jobspage.com since 1996. Questions about careers? E-mail Joe for an answer.