Asian Social Science; Vol. 11, No.

2; 2015
ISSN 1911-2017 E-ISSN 1911-2025
Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education

A Conceptual Framework of Happiness at the Workplace

Phathara-on Wesarat1, Mohmad Yazam Sharif2 & Abdul Halim Abdul Majid2
1
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prince of Songkla University, Pattani Campus, Thailand
2
School of Business Management, College of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Malaysia
Correspondence: Phathara-on Wesarat, Dept. of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,
Prince of Songkla University, Pattani Campus, Pattani, Thailand. Tel: 66-7-333-1304. E-mail:
[email protected]

Received: July 8, 2014 Accepted: October 28, 2014 Online Published: December 20, 2014
doi:10.5539/ass.v11n2p78 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ass.v11n2p78

Abstract
Happiness at the workplace refers to how satisfied people are with their work and lives. The idea of happiness is
related to individuals subjective well-being. Happiness at the workplace is crucial for improving productivity in
any organization. Happy people are productive people while those people who are unhappy may not pay full
attention to any task. Some scholars believe that organizations which are able to maintain long-term happiness at
the workplace could probably increase and sustain productivity. Therefore, they should know what factors could
affect employee happiness in order to effectively enhance happiness at the workplace. But research on employee
happiness was rarely seen in the past. The issue of happiness at the workplace needs to be properly
conceptualized so that useful research on it could be conducted. This paper presents a potential conceptual
framework of happiness at the workplace that could give valuable contribution to future research in this area.
Keywords: conceptual framework, happiness, subjective well-being, workplace
1. Introduction
Work is one of important aspects of peoples lives (Dulk, Groeneveld, Ollier-Malaterre, & Valcour, 2013).
People perform their work in exchange for either monetary (e.g. salary and benefits) or non-monetary rewards
(e.g. psychological fulfillment from work) (Stiglbauer & Batinic, 2012). In todays changing world, the world of
work has been changing rapidly (Baran, Shanock, & Miller, 2012; Quinlan, 2012). The changing work
environments (e.g. the increasing internationalization of business, new technology, and new organizational
practices) lead to the changing nature of work (Connell, Gough, McDonnell, & Burgess, 2014; Koukoulaki,
2010). Nature of work is defined as the actual content of the job or work characteristics (Benrazavi & Silong,
2013, p. 129). From human resource management (HRM) perspective, HRM practices (e.g. downsizing,
outsourcing, and temporary employment) influence the nature and scope of work (Colakoglu, Lepak, & Hong,
2006). Corporate restructuring and downsizing which aim to reduce the workforce for improving organizational
performance probably can make employees feel unsatisfied with their jobs (Klehe, Zikic, Van Vianen, & De
Pater, 2011). Employees who perceive job insecurity have lower commitment to their organizations and they
intend to leave their jobs (Silla, Gracia, Maas, & Peir, 2010). Employees job satisfaction has an impact on
organizational performance (Dalal, Baysinger, Brummel, & Lebreton, 2012). If they are satisfied with work,
their productivity would be increased (Barmby, Bryson, & Eberth, 2012).
Generally, employers expect a high level of performance and productivity from their employees (Thompson &
Goodale, 2006; Samnani & Singh, 2014). Most companies need productive workers to work for them so as they
could attain organizational goals (Chong & Eggleton, 2007; Hales & Williamson, 2010). Many companies used
managerial tools for the purpose of increasing productivity (Salis & Williams, 2010; Samnani & Singh, 2014).
The studies by Salis and Williams (2010), Samnani and Singh (2014), and Tabassi and Abu Bakar (2009)
considered HRM practices (e.g. compensation system, face-to-face communication) as the means to increase
productivity. Moreover, maintaining happiness at the workplace can increase employees productivity (Quick &
Quick, 2004). The previous studies (e.g. Quick & Quick, 2004; Rego & Cunha, 2008) state that happy
employees are productive employees. Conversely, unhappiness at the workplace reduces productivity
(Fereidouni, Najdi, & Amiri, 2013). The happiness issues have been widely studied in various fields such as
philosophy, religion, psychology, sociology, and economics (Aydin, 2012). The term happiness has been

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discussed by many scholars (Bjrke, 2012; Johnston, Luciano, Maggiori, Ruch, & Rossier, 2013). Happiness
is universal to all people in every culture because everybody searches for happiness (Aydin, 2012; Fisher. 2010).
It is related to an individuals subjective well-being (Angner, Hullett, & Allison, 2011; Jiang, Lu, & Sato, 2012)
or life satisfaction (Van Praag, Romanov, & Ferrer-i-Carbonell, 2010). There is a close relationship between job
and life satisfaction (Saari & Judge, 2004). Job satisfaction affects life satisfaction while life satisfaction also
affects job satisfaction (Saari & Judge, 2004). Thus, happiness at the workplace refers to an individuals work
and life satisfaction, or subjective well-being at the workplace (Bhattacharjee & Bhattacharjee, 2010; Carleton,
2009). In this paper, the two terms happiness and subjective well-being are used interchangeably (Frey &
Stutzer, 2000a).
Whereas happiness at the workplace is important to both individuals and organizations (Fisher, 2010; Simmons,
2014), the research on employee happiness in organizations is limited (Fisher, 2010; Hosie, Willemyns, &
Sevastos, 2012; Sloan, 2005). It should be investigated further in order to provide sufficient knowledge to
academics, practitioners, and those who are interested in the notion of happiness at the workplace (Hosie et al.,
2012; Sloan, 2005). This paper therefore develops a conceptual framework of happiness at the workplace that
could be used for conducting the research on this area. It begins with conceptual framework. It is then followed
by discussion, and conclusion respectively.
2. Conceptual Framework
This paper focused on happiness at individual level (i.e. happiness of individual employees). Based on the
literature review (e.g. Angner et al., 2011; Demir, zen, Doan, Bilyk, & Tyrell, 2011; Mohanty, 2009; Tadi,
Bakker, & Oerlemans, 2013), happiness constructs at the workplace were identified. The interrelations between
construct categories (such as employment status, income, friendship, and work activities) and happiness were
supported by the previous studies (see Table 1).

Table 1. Happiness constructs at the workplace

Construct category Findings References to support the findings
Full-time employment contributes to
Mohanty (2009)
employees happiness positively.
Unemployment brings unhappiness to Alesina, Di Tella and MacCulloch (2004)
people. Ohtake (2012)
Employment status
Unemployment is negatively related to
Dolan, Peasgood and White (2008)
subjective well-being.
Voluntary part-time employees are
Nikolova and Graham (2014)
happier than full-time employees.
Tsou and Liu (2001)
Pouwels, Siegers and Vlasblom (2008)
Selim (2008)
Individuals personal income affects
Income Biswas-Diener, Vitters and Diener (2010)
their happiness.
Knabe and Rtzel (2010)
Angner et al. (2011)
Campbell (2013)
Hamilton (2007)
Demir et al. (2011)
Positive friendship at the workplace
Friendship Naff (2012)
influences employee happiness
Bader, Hashim and Zaharim (2013)
Snow (2013)
Specific work activities are positively Waryszak and King (2001)
associated with happiness. Tadi et al. (2013)
Work activities Individuals are happy when they
perceive that their job duties are Golparvar and Abedini (2014)
significant.

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The above-mentioned constructs are the key factors which influence happiness at the workplace. This paper
assumed that these factors can make employees happy, which in turn their performance would be improved
(Atkinson & Hall, 2011). However, people in each region (e.g. Asia and Europe) or in each culture have their
own philosophy of happiness (Schwartz, 2007; Trung, Cheong, Nghi, & Kim, 2013). This paper presents a
conceptual framework which is composed of independent variables (employment status, income, friendship, and
work activities), dependent variable (happiness at the workplace), and moderating variable (cultural values) (see
Figure 1).

Independent Variables Moderating Variable Dependent Variable

Cultural Values

Employment Status
Happiness at the
Income
Workplace
Friendship
Work Activities
Figure 1. A conceptual framework of happiness at the workplace

Happiness at the workplace is hypothesized to be influenced by several factors such as employment status,
income, friendship, and work activities. The relationship between these factors and happiness at the workplace is
moderated by cultural values.
2.1 Employment Status
Employment status refers to an employment-related situation in which an individual is being held (Foroutan,
2011). Individuals happiness depends on their employment status (Frey & Stutzer, 2000b; Ha & Kim, 2013) (e.g.
employed or unemployed (Jiang et al., 2012), full-time or part-time employment (Berger, 2009)). Employees
usually seek for employment security (Silla, De Cuyper, Gracia, Peir, & De Witte, 2009). Unemployment status
makes people unhappy (Escott & Buckner, 2013). Their experience of unemployment or fear of unemployment
can reduce happiness (Ohtake, 2012). Particularly, individuals who value family relationships may be more
unhappy with unemployment status if it causes their family difficulties (Campbell, 2013). A number of studies
have confirmed that unemployment affects happiness, but part-time and full-time employment that may affect
employee happiness are needed to be investigated further (Berger, 2009). A study of maternal employment and
happiness by Berger (2009) states that part-time employees have lower life satisfaction than full-time employees.
Nevertheless, voluntary part-time employees who choose not to work full-time are happier than those full-time
employees (Nikolova & Graham, 2014).
2.2 Income
Income includes the wage and salary income earned by an individual (Mathur, 2012). A study of income and
happiness by Caporale, Georgellis, Tsitsianis and Yin (2009) confirms that there is a strong relationship between
a persons income and life satisfaction. This is because people who have higher income have more opportunities
to buy desired goods and services (Frey & Stutzer, 2002; Schnittker, 2008). Even though people who gain higher
income seem to be happier people, their happiness level is affected by working hours (Binswanger, 2006; Paul &
Guilbert, 2013). People may be unsatisfied with their jobs if they have long working hours (Georgellis, Lange, &
Tabvuma, 2012).
Furthermore, people compare their own income with others (Lembregts & Pandelaere, 2014; Oshio & Kobayashi,
2011). They are likely to be happy when they perceive income equality (De Prycker, 2010). Oshio and
Kobayashi (2011) contend that individuals who experience income inequality are less happy. In contrast,
Hopkins (2008) argues that income inequality can positively affect happiness of some competitive people who
gain more income than others. This is because competitive people try to make the difference between their own
and others rewards (Brody, 2010). They may be happy with higher income even if it is unequal to those people
(Hopkins, 2008).

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2.3 Friendship
Friendship is defined as a close relationship among friends (Huang, 2008). People express their friendship
through emotion and behavior (Huang, 2008; Spencer, 2012). Friendship at the workplace refers to individuals
friendship with their peers, subordinates, and superiors (Austin, 2009; Lee, 2005; Mao & Hsieh, 2012).
Friendship at the workplace has a positive impact on organizational productivity and employees work attitudes
towards their jobs (Song, 2005). Many studies show the link between interpersonal relationship and happiness
(Demir & Davidson, 2013; Sraker, 2012; Westaway, Olorunju, & Rai, 2007). Positive friendship not only
influences happiness of employees but also affects productivity (Bader et al., 2013). Friendship groups are more
committed to their work and lead to higher productivity (Dotan, 2007). Employees who have meaningful
friendship are happier than those who are alone (Snow, 2013). Consistently, Wright (2005) asserts that lonely
people are less happy. People who have significant friendships may be happy because good friends are willing to
behave positively to each other (Simon, Judge, & Halvorsen-Ganepola, 2010). It should be highlighted that
happy employees are mostly sociable people who have more friends (Ganser, 2012).
2.4 Work Activities
Work activities are the activities or duties that are performed by workers (Siccama, 2006). Some workers are
happy with their work activities while some workers have negative experiences at work (Siegall & McDonald,
2004). Individual could have different levels of happiness during different work activities (Tadi et al., 2013).
They may happy to perform specific work activities (Tadi et al., 2013; Waryszak & King, 2001). Martin (2008)
argues that people feel happy when they pursue meaningful activities. Thus, managers should know how to
manage the meaning of work for employees (Cleavenger & Munyon, 2013; Vasconcelos, 2008). If employees
perceive significance and meaning of work, they may be happy to do their work (Dimitrov, 2012; MacMillan,
2009).
2.5 Cultural Values
Cultural values are belief systems that a society is committed to and that are handed down from one generation
to the next (Hassan, 2011, p. 111). A study by Downie, Koestner and Chua (2007) presents that cultural values
can support an individuals self-determination to the happiness in diverse countries. The study shows the mean
level differences of happiness across countries (Downie et al., 2007). Similarly, this paper assumed that the
above-mentioned factors (employment status, income, friendship, and work activities) do not have the same
effect to employee happiness in different cultures. The conceptions of happiness may vary among different
societies or cultures (Lu, Gilmour, & Kao, 2001). People from different cultures (e.g. Western and Eastern
cultures) value different things (Goos, 2012; Lee, Scandura & Sharif, 2014). Western cultural values are mainly
focused on individualism that views each individual as an autonomous person (Cho, Thyroff, Rapert, Part, & Lee,
2013; Goh, Lee, & Salleh, 2009). Individualistic people place a high value on self-interests and personal goals
(Rego & Cunha, 2009). Hence, their happiness is based on personal factors (e.g. personal attitudes and beliefs)
(Ram, 2010).
Eastern cultural values are emphasized on collectivism (Shao & Skarlicki, 2014). In collectivistic societies,
group goals are more important than personal goals (Zhang, Van Doorn, & Leeflang, 2014). They believe that an
individuals personal goals should not threaten group harmony (Ayiegi-Dinn & Caldwell-Harris, 2011).
However, individuals can have both Eastern and Western cultures since they are exposed to one anothers culture
in their everyday lives (Leung, Hou, Gati, & Li, 2011; Parker, Haytko, & Hermans, 2009).
3. Discussion
Employees are happy when they experience stable employment (Scherer, 2009). Permanent employees seem to
be more satisfied with their jobs than temporary employees (Ong & Shah, 2012; Scherer, 2009). Sora, Caballer
and Peir (2010) maintain that temporary employees perceive a high level of job insecurity. Unstable
employment not only makes employees feel unhappy but also affects the rate of employee turnover and
organizational performance (Dike, 2011). This is because temporary employees are more likely to intend to leave
their jobs than permanent employees (Sora et al., 2010).
Many studies (e.g. Gebremariam, Gebremedhin, & Schaeffer, 2010; Rotaru, 2014) show the link between
employment and income growth. Employment can be considered as an important source of income (Zuvekas &
Hill, 2000). People who have better employment status (i.e. stable employment) gain higher income (Shlay,
Weinraub, Harmon, & Tran, 2004). They may be happier than those who have lower employment status and gain
lower income (Caporale et al., 2009). Furthermore, it should be noted that self-employed people seem to be more
satisfied with work than those who are employed in organizations (Benz & Frey, 2008). Employed and

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self-employed people have different work processes that might have an impact to their happiness level (Benz &
Frey, 2008). As a result, this paper views work activities as one of happiness constructs. People find the kinds of
work tasks that are matched with their interests (Porfeli & Mortimer, 2010). The individuals interests can be
concerned with meaning of work (Michaelson, 2011). Some people are probably happy to pursue the meaningful
work (Grady & McCarthy, 2008). An understanding of factors contributing to meaning of work is useful for the
organizations to provide employees with meaningful work (Michaelson, Pratt, Grant, & Dunn, 2014).
In addition to the three happiness constructs mentioned earlier, people value friendship at the workplace as
important to their work life (Mao, Hsieh, & Chen, 2012). Friendship at the workplace facilitates the exchange of
resources and ideas among employees (Chang, 2013; DCruz & Noronha, 2011). It enhances employees
attitudes towards work and work performance (Lin, 2010). Employees who are happy with work and have
positive friendships at the workplace are less likely to leave their jobs (Dike, 2011). However, Mao and Hsieh
(2012) argue that employees with different work levels may differ in friendship expectation. Higher-level
employees had lower expectation for friendship at work (Mao & Hsieh, 2012). Thus, employees performing
different work levels could differ in happiness of friendship as well.
Maintaining employee happiness is necessary to ensure availability of workforce (Asiyabi & Mirabi, 2012;
Lindorff, 2010). According to the changing world of work, most employees change their jobs several times
(Clarke, 2007; Sun & Wang, 2011). Many organizations have difficulties retaining the high talent employees
who have high potential to accomplish organizational goals (Chaudhry & Shah, 2011; Kumar & Dhamodaran,
2013). It can be said that enhancing happiness at the workplace is a challenge for maximizing organizational
productivity (Chaudhry & Shah, 2011).
4. Conclusion
In this paper, the relationship between independent variables and happiness at the workplace is hypothesized to
be moderated by cultural values. Employee happiness may differ in different cultural contexts. The research on
happiness issues should be explored further to include diverse cultures as well as various types of organizations
(Sloan, 2005). Since the notion of happiness is crucial for organizational performance and productivity, HR
managers need to design and manage a workplace to enhance employee happiness (Gavin & Mason, 2004; Rego
& Cunha, 2008). Happy employees bring their happiness from the office to their home; likewise they also
transfer their happiness from their home to the office (Asiyabi & Mirabi, 2012). This suggests that there is a
possible close interrelation between an individuals work and life.
Acknowledgments
We would like to express our special thanks to Prince of Songkla University (PSU), Pattani Campus and
Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) for providing us with necessary resources. We also would like to thank the
staff and lecturers for all their help and support.
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