Emory MBAs Visit Denmark For A Lesson In Happiness

Marina Cooley, assistant professor of marketing at Emory Goizueta Business School: “It is considered a human ideal to be pursuing growth through something outside of work or other obligations.” Courtesy photo

If the world can learn anything from Denmark, one of the happiest countries on Earth, it’s how to have a better work-life balance and understand respective generations’ expectations of work.

The MBAs of today will be managing Gen Z and Gen Alpha workers who have far different expectations of work-life balance. In other words, they are going to have to be managed in a new way. It’s a question that occupies much of Marina Cooley’s thoughts.

“I’m with 20-year-olds most of the day, and they have different expectations. They have a much healthier sense of boundaries,” says Cooley, assistant professor of marketing at Emory Goizueta Business School. “Managers will have to have more empathy, and more ability to direct employees like that and find incentives outside of monetary incentives to encourage them.”

Marina Cooley: “In the U.S., our workday and school day are not connected to each other. It’s this national clock that helps create a positive work-life balance.” Courtesy photo

U.S. LEVELS OF HAPPINESS ARE DROPPING

Cooley views Denmark as an ideal model for how to balance work and life. A few months ago she took 30 MBAs in her Life Design for the Modern MBA course to Copenhagen to investigate what makes the Danish so happy and efficient.

Denmark ranks as one of the happiest countries in the world, landing at No. 2 this year on the World Happiness Report. The U.S., meanwhile, dropped from No. 15 to No. 23. As happiness levels decline in the U.S., burnout is on the rise — Deloitte found in a recent survey of 1,000 U.S. professionals that 77% are experiencing or have experienced burnout at their current jobs.

It’s a concern because culturally one of the key measurements of worth and satisfaction in the U.S. is outward success, especially for MBAs.

Emory MBAs visiting Pandora. Courtesy photo

WHAT LESSONS CAN BE LEARNED FROM THE DANES?

Cooley’s class studied Danish corporate culture, visiting Copenhagen Business School, LEGO, the Happiness Institute, and Pandora, and meeting with representatives from DHL and Maersk.

“Life there goes a step beyond family-friendly,” Cooley says. “It’s all about family integration there.”

In Denmark, managers are highly empathetic towards their employees. Corporate structures and policies are built around the idea that employees have responsibilities and lives outside of work, and most everyone has stages in life where they need more flexibility with their work hours — particularly when they are having and raising kids.

To help facilitate this harmonious work-life balance, nationally, Danish workdays are aligned with school schedules, both ending around 3:45 p.m.

“In the U.S., our workday and school day are not connected to each other. It’s this national clock that helps create a positive work-life balance.”

Emory MBAs visiting Copenhagen Business School. Courtesy photo

‘WHAT DO YOU DO’ TAKES ON A NEW MEANING

In America, many of us have said or thought, “This meeting could have been an email,” but in Denmark, that’s a foreign concept.

Denmark’s workweek is between 32 and 37 hours, and as Cooley notes, “When you have this short of time, you need to be organized.”

The Danes also have serious hobbies that are considered a staple part of one’s identity — more so than one’s work identity. Cooley says that when they ask, “What do you do?” Danes first and foremost mean, “What do you do for fun?”

“It is considered a human ideal to be pursuing growth through something outside of work or other obligations,” says Cooley. “I think there’s this love of hobby that helps get them out of work and helps them be productive when they are present at work.”

HOW DANISH IDEALS CAN GUIDE FUTURE MBAS

Happiness and life design curricula are becoming more common within MBA programs at top schools like UCLA, Stanford, Harvard, and Dartmouth Tuck. “When I was an MBA ten years ago, you didn’t see this,” says Cooley.

Back home on U.S. soil, the other part of Cooley’s Life Design for the Modern MBA course includes workshops on the history of work, happiness research, goal setting, and resilience.

“I don’t think there’s anyone at any life stage that doesn’t benefit from reflecting, and that’s what the course helps you do. It’s a forced and palatable way of making yourself slow down and think about the life you want to live and what steps you actually need to take in order to live that life,” she says.