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THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION
TO HAPPINESS AT WORK
An unprecedented and important reference work, this research companion covers a range of aspects
of happiness, an aim everyone aspires to achieve, yet can be easily overlooked in today’s demanding
and multi-challenged world, or confused with a plethora of quantifiable or career goals.
This book helps readers to internalize happiness, form a healthy opinion about this emotion, and
detach it from external factors that can only cause temporary discomfort or delight. A group of
expert authors considers happiness within three critical realms: internally, interactively, and work-
related. Their thoughtful contributions approach happiness from a multiplicity of angles, and present
a full spectrum of backgrounds and perspectives to consider, based on a wide range of circumstances,
personal and professional.
This companion will be valuable for researchers, students, and coaches, whether they seek input
for future theory development, or motivation for performance in personal and professional life.
Joan Marques is Professor of Management and Dean of the School of Business, Woodbury
University, USA. Her research focuses on workplace spirituality, ethics, and leadership. She has
published extensively, including the books Business and Buddhism, Leadership, and Ethical Leadership,
all published by Routledge.
ROUTLEDGE COMPANIONS IN BUSINESS,
MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING
Routledge Companions are prestige volumes which provide an overview of a research field or topic.
Surveying the business disciplines, the books in this series incorporate both established and emerging
research themes. Compiled and edited by an array of highly regarded scholars, these volumes also
benefit from global teams of contributors reflecting disciplinary diversity.
Individually, Routledge Companions in Business, Management and Marketing provide impactful one-
stop-shop publications. Collectively, they represent a comprehensive learning and research resource
for researchers, postgraduate students and practitioners.
Typeset in Bembo
by MPS Limited, Dehradun
Happiness resides within
Where awareness should begin
Happiness cannot be influenced by circumstances
By setbacks, lay-offs, or advances
Happiness is a constructive sense
That spreads good vibes: positive, intense…
This companion is devoted to the happiness case
As it matters at home, outside, and in the workplace
CONTENTS
List of Figures xi
List of Tables xii
List of Contributors xiii
PART I
Happiness at Its Core 1
vii
Contents
PART II
Sharing The Light of Happiness at Work 77
viii
Contents
PART III
Nurturing Happiness Through Work 209
ix
Contents
Index 358
x
FIGURES
xi
TABLES
xii
CONTRIBUTORS
Dr. Tarshima Bell-Hackett is a counselor, ordained minister, life coach, and motivational
speaker. She has also been a Professor at Sandhills Community College, USA, for over 18 years. Her
research is centered around nurturing and guiding people to find purpose in everyday life. She is the
CEO and founder of Bella Tapestries, a mentoring program that promotes the beauty of unity by
affording women an environment to bloom through gatherings, conferences, and workshops, while
supporting them as they learn to embrace their authentic stories.
Dr. Theresa Billiot is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Woodbury University, USA. She
teaches undergraduate and MBA courses in Marketing. Her research interests are entertainment and
humor marketing, empathy and well-being in marketing, and public policy with a focus on
advocacy for legislation. Prior to joining academia, her professional experience included working as
a New Business Development Executive with the National Hockey League’s Florida Panthers and as
a Solutions Manager for Clear Channel Radio in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale market. She is a
published author and has presented at numerous conferences.
Dr. Silvia Biraghi is an Assistant Professor at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy, with a
strong focus on qualitative research methods in the field of corporate and marketing
communication, branding, and consumer-brand relationships. Her current research topics include
consumer-brand relationship dynamics, consumer culture, new frontiers in brand communication,
consumer-brand engagement and branded content, client-agency relations, and societal corporate
branding and stakeholder engagement. She has done postgraduate work in qualitative research for
marketing and social sciences and has participated in various research training program workshops.
Dr. Clive Boddy is Professor of Management at the Tasmanian School of Business and Economics
at the University of Tasmania, Australia. He is also a Visiting Professor in Leadership at Curtin
University, Australia. His background is in market research and he worked commercially in Sydney,
Taipei, Hong Kong, Seoul and London. In Asia-pacific, he turned around two research offices and
co-launched a multi-national research group. His research interests include toxic leadership and in
particular, the effects of corporate psychopaths on employees, organizations, and society. He has
published several books and has appeared as an expert in several documentaries. His TEDx talk is
called “Corporate Psychopaths and Bullying”.
xiii
Contributors
Dr. Sylvia W. Burgess is a Senior Partner with One Step at a Time Consulting, LLC providing
services for leadership training and development. She has over 18 years of experience in teaching,
facilitation, curriculum design, leadership development, community engagement, cultural
competency, diversity and inclusion, team building, and conflict resolution. She is a published
author in the areas of spiritual capital and community engagement. She is also an ordained minister
of the gospel.
Dr. Orneita Burton is a Professor of Management and Information Systems in the Department of
Management Sciences at Abilene Christian University in Texas, USA. She imparts her assemblage of
educational and professional experience from the oil industry to her students. She has worked for
many of the leading oil industry giants and climbed to prominence within those companies. She also
has an impressive list of publications, presentations, and accomplishments in her field.
Dr. Bruce Carroll is Director & Program Lead of Strategy & Governance at the Lean Sigma
Institute. Bruce has extensive experience as an executive in corporate governance, organizational
change and transformation planning. In these roles he successfully delivered strategic reforms, re-
engineering business processes and introduced innovation to a range of disciplines and organizations.
He has been a member of audit committees, held statutory roles for fraud and business integrity, and
served, as either chair or member, on hospital and university human research ethic committees. He
consults to higher education, government, the private sector and the not for profit sector. He has
been an academic and is currently a mentor to managers and senior executives.
Dr. Morgan R. Clevenger is Associate Professor of Management at Hiram College, Ohio, USA, and
is Professor of Management and a Post-Doctoral Fellow with Monarch Business School, Switzerland,
in Corporate Social Responsibility and Global Business Ethics. He has been Professor in the
Department of Management, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship in the Grove College of Business at
Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA, and is erstwhile tenured Associate Professor of
Entrepreneurship at Wilkes University, PA, USA. He researches, writes, and presents widely on issues
of corporate citizenship, higher education, non-profit management, ethics, entrepreneurship, corporate
social responsibility, family business, entrepreneurial ecosystems, entrepreneurial communities, and
culture of entrepreneurship.
Cristián Coo is a PhD Candidate at the Universitat Jaume I in Castellón, Spain, and a member of
the WANT research team. He specializes in mindfulness and contemplative sciences and focuses his
thesis project on the evaluation of the positive effects of mindfulness-based interventions at work.
He has actively participated in some of the main research projects carried by WANT and is a
participating member of different scientific societies in the field of applied psychology.
Dr. Daniele Dalli is a Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behavior in the Department of
Economics and Management at the University of Pisa, Italy. He leads the Communicating and
Practicing Social Responsibility focus area and his main research interest is in consumer behavior.
xiv
Contributors
He has published in the Journal of Business Research, the International Journal of Market Research,
Managing Service Quality, the Journal of Consumer Behavior, Management Decision, the Journal of Business
Ethics, Marketing Theory, and the International Journal of Research in Marketing. He is Editor of the
Italian Journal Mercati e competitività.
Dr. Debra J. Dean has decades of experience in Corporate America as well as years of teaching
experience at the university level. She is an Adjunct Professor at Regent University, USA, and
President and CEO of Dean Business Consulting. She was nominated as one of three top
operational excellence leaders with OPEX Week Business Transformation World Summit 2019.
She received the 2018 Outstanding Reviewer award for the Management, Spirituality, and Religion
(MSR) community. She was nominated as a top female leader with her previous global workplace.
She has also been included in Biltmore’s Who’s Who of Women Business Leaders, Continental
Who’s Who of National Business Leaders, and Who’s Who Among University Students.
Dr. Babar Dharani is a Senior Lecturer of the Allan Gray Centre (AGC) for Values-Based
Leadership at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, South Africa. He became
a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) in 2004 and
became a fellow of the ICAEW in 2015. His career started at Deloitte in London, and he excelled in
the diamond industry in his capacity as CFO in Dubai. His interest in finance and organizational
psychology is founded on the belief that managing finance departments requires technical
knowledge, but also insights into organizational psychology. He believes that this complementary
interest supported his career, and laid foundations for his personalized approach to research.
Dr. Satinder Dhiman serves as the Associate Dean, Chair and Director of the MBA Program and
as the Professor of Management at Woodbury University, Burbank, CA, USA. He has delivered
pioneer contributions to the field of transformational leadership, workplace spirituality, workplace
wellbeing, sustainability, and fulfilment in the personal and professional arena. In 2013, he gave a
talk at the TEDx Conference at the College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, California, USA, and
he has done over 50 Conference Presentations and more than 50 Invited Keynotes, Plenary Sessions,
Distinguished Key Guest Lectures and Creative Workshops, both nationally and internationally. He
has published over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters; and authored, co-authored,
co-edited, and translated over 25 management, leadership, spirituality, and accounting related books
and research monographs.
Dr. Guillaume Durand is affiliated to the University of Ottawa, Canada, and serves as a
Psychotherapist In Private Practice at Durand Psychotherapy. His work has been published in
prominent journals such as Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, the Journal of
Personality Assessment, PLoS ONE, Child Abuse & Neglect, the Journal of Happiness Studies, and
Personality and Individual Differences.
Dr. Robert S. Fleming is a Professor of Management and Past Dean of the Rohrer College of
Business at Rowan University, USA, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate strategic
xv
Contributors
management courses. The focus of his teaching, research, and consulting has been on strategic
management and enhancing organizational effectiveness. He is a nationally recognized authority on
crisis management, fire and emergency service administration, and is frequently called upon as a
subject matter expert on business and emergency management topics by print, radio, and television
media sources. His recent professional activities include participating in the Senior Executives in
National and International Security Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is also a prolific
author.
Dr. Claudia Harzer is Interim Professor for Personality Psychology and Psychological Assessment
at the University of Greifswald, Germany. She also functions as expert of the Human Capital and
Employment Unit of the Joint Research Center (Directorate B. Growth and Innovation) of the
European Commission in Sevilla, Spain. Her research is mainly focused on the role of character
strengths and strengths-related person–job fit for various indicators of optimal functioning at work
(e.g., well-being, performance). She disseminates her research by publishing her findings in scientific
journals; delivering talks at academic conferences, universities, and companies; as well as publishing
press releases and interviews in public media.
Dr. Roger John Hilton is Founder and CEO/Program Lead for Operations Excellence and
Sustainable Practice at Lean Sigma Institute, Australia. He brings a depth of industry experience
across a range of industries, including manufacturing and service sectors. He has held senior roles in
Quality & Risk Management across a number of sectors and has lectured at graduate levels. He is a
Chartered Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society (UK). He spent a number of years in academic
research and has published journal articles involving qualitative and quantitative research to develop
a model for sustainable deployment of Continuous Improvement. He has facilitated many
improvement and innovation projects, coached executives and has championed the deployment
of continuous improvement in a number of businesses. He has expertise in leading and facilitating
projects and in coaching individuals in both qualitative and quantitative techniques.
Dr. Edyta Janus is Professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy at the University of
Physical Education in Krakow, Poland. She is certified in Teacher Training in Occupational
Therapy Theory, Practice and Education. She is member of the board of the Polish Occupational
Therapy Association. She works as the data manager on the international research project
“HOMESIDE: Home-based family caregiver-delivered interventions for people living with
dementia: an international randomized controlled trial”, supported by the Joint Programs for
Neurodegenerative Diseases (JPND). She is interested in the issues and determinants of health, social
support, and social psychology.
Dr. Dorota Jasielska works as an Assistant Professor at Maria Grzegorzewska University, Poland.
Her research interests are primarily in the area of positive psychology in a social and cross-cultural
xvi
Contributors
context. She studies links between happiness and attitude towards other people. She is an instructor
on postgraduate studies in Positive Psychology in Practice at the University of Warsaw, Poland,
where she delivers courses on positive psychology interventions and positive psychology at work.
She is a certified trainer of psychosocial skills with accreditation from the Polish Psychological
Association. As a consultant, she participates in business projects oriented at assessment and
development of interpersonal competences. She is interested in strategies that enhance happiness
at work and popularizes the idea of creating happy workplaces among business organizations.
She has authored journal articles about social determinants of happiness in different cultures and
one book.
Dr. Sunny Jeong is an Assistant Professor of Business at Wittenberg University, USA. She is a
compassionate scholar and dedicated educator with over five years’ experience teaching social
entrepreneurship and international business. Her research interests lie at the confluence of third
person spirituality, religion and business practices, social and cultural capital (religion and belief in
fate), and gender. Her teaching areas include international business, global leadership, and social
entrepreneurship. Her professional experiences include private consulting services in the area of
international expansion strategy and business development planning for small to large size
companies, new social venture development, and incorporation of L3C and 501(C)3 corporations.
Dr. Wanda Krause is Program Head of the Global Leadership Program and Associate Professor in
the School of Leadership at Royal Roads University, Canada. Her PhD is in politics with a focus on
organizational development, where she evaluated the impacts of women’s participation in their
initiatives on civil society development in international settings. She has contributed to the
development or the founding of two centers and two MA programs. She has contributed to,
written, and edited four books as an award-winning and international bestselling author, and has
edited one book, as well as writing several journal papers and book chapters. Her work can also be
found at www.wandakrause.com
Paul S. Kioko is a Chief Operations Specialist in the United States Navy stationed in San Diego,
USA. He has over eighteen years of experience in the U.S. Department of Defense, Training,
Management, Military Operations, and Leadership.
Dr. Elliott Kruse is a Research Professor at the EGADE Business School at the Tec de Monterrey,
Mexico. He is the head of the Leadership research group. His research focuses on the relationship
between leadership, values, and well-being and his interests include the fields of ethics, motivation,
and decision making. He is particularly interested in the implications of problem resolution,
negotiation, and social innovation.
Dr. Peter M. Lewa is a Professor at the United States International University – Africa, Kenya. He
has extensive working experience in both the public and private sectors. He has been in research,
teaching, and consultancy for more than 30 years. He has substantial experience in public sector
finance, monitoring, and evaluation of projects in both the public sector and private sector; strategic
planning; global strategy, trading blocks, international trade, curriculum development and
evaluation; evaluation of new university applications with CUE (CHE); transformational
leadership development, establishment of new universities; performance contracting in the public
sector, performance management in the private sector, and in related issues. He has worked as a
consultant for international agencies and overseas universities and institutions. He has assisted
organizations within and outside Kenya to develop their strategic plans, Business plans, and Action
Plans geared towards building their capacities.
xvii
Contributors
Dr. Susan K. Lewa is a Lecturer at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology
(JKUAT) Karen campus in Nairobi, Kenya. She has research interests in leadership, HRM,
management, social enterprise and strategic management. She has various publications in the areas of
leadership, HRM, management and psychology.
Lisa Linzbach works as a consultant in Munich, Germany. She has gained deeper understanding in
the field of happiness at work during her university studies and work experiences in large
consultancies and corporates, eventually deciding to write her master’s thesis on young professionals
and the happiness mask, based on the initial findings of Suojanen (2017).
Dr. Susana Llorens is Associate Professor in Work and Organizational Psychology at the Universitat
Jaume I of Castellón, Spain. She is a founding member and co-director of the WANT research team
and director of the University Master Degree in Work and Organizational Psychology and Human
Resources the Universitat Jaume I of Castellón, Spain. She has published more than a hundred national
and international papers on subjects varying from burnout and techno-stress to work engagement and
healthy and resilient organizations. She participates actively in several national and international research
projects funded by the Spanish Government and the European Union among others.
Dr. John M. Malouff is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of New England,
Australia. He has co-authored seven scholarly books, and he has also co-authored over 100 journal
articles. His research has focused on ways to help individuals improve their mental and physical
health and relationships. He also writes a syndicated newspaper column, called ‘Mind Matters’, on
applications of psychology to everyday life.
Dr. Joan Marques is Dean and Professor of Management at Woodbury University’s School of
Business, USA. She has reinvented herself from a radio and television producer/host in Suriname,
South America, to an academic entrepreneur in California, USA. She teaches courses related to
Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Behavior in the MBA and BBA Programs, and presents
regularly at academic and professional workshops. She has authored/co-authored/co-edited 20
books so far. She has also been widely published in a variety of scholarly and professional journals
worldwide. Her research interests pertain to awakened leadership, Buddhist psychology, and
workplace spirituality.
Dr. Karen Martin-Jones is an Instructional Coach and Founder of Leaders Emerging Around a
Purpose, LLC (L.E.A.P), a mentoring program. She works with high risk, high school students to
develop leaders who can effectively change the culture of their schools through peer mentoring,
civic and community involvement, and a host of other strategies that will help them successfully lead
and navigate high school and beyond. Much of her research focuses on the impact of technology,
generational differences, and its implications on instruction. In addition, she is an Adjunct Professor
at NC A&T State University, USA, where she teaches teacher candidates how to effectively use and
implement technology as a tool for engagement and instruction. She has also taught a myriad of
educational and computer science courses.
Dr. Maria Christina Meyers is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Human Resource
Studies of Tilburg University, the Netherlands. In this function, she teaches courses on work and
health psychology, positive psychology, strategic human resource management, and talent
management. Her research is strongly rooted in two academic domains, positive psychology
(applied to the work context) and talent management. Combining these two domains, she strives
to explore how organizations can best use the talents of (all) employees to ensure the sustainable
xviii
Contributors
well-being and performance of both employees and organizations. She collaborates with
organizations operating in different sectors (e.g., consulting, healthcare, construction) and uses
advanced research designs (e.g., field experiments, multi-level studies) to explore these relationships.
She has published her research in several international journals.
Sarah M. Mutuku is a Strategic Account Analyst at HD Supply. She has over fifteen years of
experience in sales and national account management. She provides strategic and financial analyses in
an effort to bridge the gap between goals and operational efficiency. In her current role, she develops
strategies that ensure compliance, analyzes sales data to study buying habits and patterns, and
recommends corrective action.
Steve Perera is Director & Program Lead in Business & Technology at the Lean Sigma Institute.
His keys are providing baselining, augmenting impact assessments, defining performance criteria,
and setting measures of effectiveness. He has contributed business excellence to many of his
consultancy engagements with letters of appreciation over 30 years. He is a business architect having
had senior roles in Start-up Ventures, Quality Assurance and recently Master Data across a number
of sectors.
Dr. Ivo Ponocny is Professor at the Department for Sustainability, Governance, and Methods at
MODUL University Vienna, Austria. He started his career at the Institute for Psychology of the
University of Vienna where he developed goodness-of-fit tests for the Rasch model, for which he
was awarded the Gustav A. Lienert prize of the German Psychological Society. His current main
research focus lies on quality-of-life and subjective well-being, its drivers and components, and its
assessment, in particular using mixed-methods linking life circumstances and subjective well-being.
Further research interests are environmental and social psychology, and scientific methodology, for
instance of international educational studies such as PISA and PIAAC.
Dr. Marisa Salanova is a Professor in Social Psychology, specialized in Work and Organizational
Psychology and Positive Psychology; and the Director of the WANT research team at the
Universitat Jaume I in Castellón, Spain. She is a founding member of the Spanish Society of Positive
Psychology. She has authored more than three hundred national and international publications on
xix
Contributors
Occupational Health Psychology and more recently has reoriented her career towards Positive
Psychology applied to work, publishing numerous articles on work engagement, flow, self-efficacy,
and healthy and resilient organizations. She participates actively in several national and international
research projects funded by the Spanish Government and the European Union among others.
Dr. Nicola S. Schutte is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of New England,
Australia. She has co-authored numerous journal articles and books. Her research interests lie in the
area of positive psychology, with a focus on character strengths, emotional intelligence, self-efficacy,
and curiosity.
Dr. Thomas Anyanje Senaji is the Deputy Vice Chancellor at The East African University and
Professor of Strategy. He has wide experience in telecommunications and ICT. He is a consultant
on broadband strategy and related areas such as standardization, conformance and interoperability,
quality of service/experience, regulation, and human capacity building. Working with the ITU and
the Universal Postal Union (UPU), his current consultancy engagements are Development of
Model Broadband Plan, and Electrification and Connectivity of Post Offices in SADC (and the rest
of Africa) respectively. He has consulted and completed the development of guidelines for the
development of broadband master plans for the SADC region and elaborated national broadband
strategies for the Republic of Namibia and for the Kingdom of Swaziland. He has also developed the
national ePost strategy and the Malawi Posts Corporate Strategy for Malawi as the lead consultant
in collaboration with Chris Schaeke. He is also a specialist in knowledge management and in
organisational development and change.
Victor Senaji Anyanje is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and a Commissioner for Oaths,
specializing in Telecommunications, Commercial, and Family Law. He is also engaged in
assignments in academia and has been previously retained as a part-time Lecturer at the Africa
Nazarene University, Kenya, teaching evidence law and human rights law. He volunteers in
children’s matters across a wide spectrum including NGOs and Private Clients, including through
awareness creation, capacity building, and legal representation. He is also a writer and an English
editor.
Dr. Sunita Singh Sengupta is Dean of the Faculty of Management Studies at the University of
Delhi, India. She is an author of 28 books and more than 100 articles in national and international
journal of repute. She is the founder of the Integrating Spirituality and Organizational Leadership
Foundation (India), ISOL Global Foundation (USA), and Academy of Value Based Management
(Canada). She is the founding editor of International Journal on Spirituality and Organizational
Leadership, International Journal on Vedic Foundations of Management, and a 10 Volume Compendium
on Integrating Spirituality and Organizational Leadership.
Dr. Tal Shavit is a Professor in the School of Business Administration at the College of
Management Academic Studies in Rishon-LeZion, Israel. His research fields pertain to well-being,
happiness, decision making, behavioral economics, and experimental economics.
Dr. Arie Sherman is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics at the Ruppin Academic
Center in Emek Hefer, Israel. His research interests pertain to well-being, happiness, and hedonic
capital, all within the discipline of behavioral economics.
xx
Contributors
founding member of the Polish Occupational Therapy Association. She lectures on ethics, bioethics,
and occupational therapy methods for seniors with dementia. She lectures on the Snoezelen method
(Multi Sensory Environment) for bachelor’s and master’s degree students and Erasmus students. She
is the president of ISNA-MSE Poland. Her research areas include philosophical anthropology,
ethics, bioethics (including therapeutic interventions), occupational therapy with the elderly and
patients with dementia, and the Snoezelen method.
Dr. Ilona Suojanen works as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Rotterdam School of Management
at Erasmus University, the Netherlands. Her PhD thesis was on happiness in the workplace among
young professionals, and she has also given talks and interviews in media on the topic. Her research
interests lie in happiness and in visualizing it, with a current focus on the impact of perceived public
safety on people’s happiness.
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PART I
Joan Marques
A Moving Target
Happiness has often been described as a moving target, implying that what makes us happy today
may not mean much to us tomorrow. This makes sense when we consider that our mental states
change over time, influenced by our surroundings, circumstances, and experiences. So, ideas of what
would constitute a happy life at one time may widely differ from those at a later stage. In fact, even
the notion of success, which is also associated with happiness, is a very subjective one. While a
large number of people associate success with wealth, fame, or prominence, the ones who have
accomplished those feats may differ in opinion when they reflect on the mishaps, health problems,
or other sensitive losses they may be suffering. Easterlin (2002) posts a cautionary note when it
comes to people’s perception of happiness over time. Focusing on the US society, he finds that
when people progress in financial affluence, they perceive their happiness standards of five years
ago as inferior to their current standards, whereas the opposite happens when their economic
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Joan Marques
circumstances decline: then they perceive their happiness standards of five years ago as superior to
current standards. This accentuates how closely happiness gets associated with economic wellbeing
in some societies. And indeed, in a 2005 publication, Easterlin shares the opinion that he considers
the terms well-being, utility, happiness, life satisfaction, and welfare interchangeable, but in a
2012 article, Raibley strongly opposes this notion, affirming that, while happiness can be an im
portant determinant of wellbeing, it is conceptually, metaphysically, and empirically distinct from
well-being.
Compartmentalizing Happiness
Happiness has also been compartmentalized. There are, for instance, descriptions of material hap
piness, physical happiness, sensual happiness (including mental happiness), intellectual happiness, and
spiritual happiness (Limbasiya, 2015), indicating that one can be happy in one regard, yet not in
another. Reviewing each of these compartments within a variety of Indian scriptures, Limbasiya
(2015) finds that:
–. material happiness implies that whatever makes our life convenient brings happiness, whether
this is our food, car, traveling, partying, or anything else;
–. physical happiness relates to the physical joys we aspire, whether in clothing, interacting,
feeding ourselves, or other ways;
–. sensual happiness relates to the five senses, seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling and smelling, thus
making this perspective of happiness particularly popular for marketers to entice the public with
their products, with the interesting aspect of our mental state, oftentimes considered the sixth
sense, as the controlling factor in how we choose to perceive things;
–. intellectual happiness is described as a result of the ability to perceive similar experiences in
either positive or negative lights, based on one’s intellectual stance;
–. spiritual happiness dives into the query of one’s true self or consciousness, which is unselfish,
and void of desires, wants, anger, lust, or ego.
Due to the fact that we harbor all these aspects within us, perceiving happiness within compartments
becomes a complicated and confusing endeavor, especially when we consider that our intellect
ultimately decides, on the basis of long term and short term aspects, what our course of action should
be in any matter that we can exert influence on.
4
Internalizing Happiness
in happiness, including possibilities like social security and transfers and subsidies to neutralize potential
negative effects of more income inequality” (p. 414).
5
Joan Marques
Sethi (2016) eloquently offers a series of considerations to increase a sense of happiness at work,
varying from the maintenance of a satisfactory work-life balance where people feel that their time off
is honored and even encouraged, to nurturing the organizational culture, which may change as an
organization evolves, but should not be destroyed, and from keeping employees involved, since that
enhances a sense of ownership and belonging, to promoting transparency, whereby people are not
left in the dark about major developments in the organization; and from granting satisfactory benefits
toward time off, health care, and retirement, to career support, where employees are assisted in their
personal and professional development.
Uttley (2014) first underscores Raibley’s (2012) earlier shared opinion that happiness and wellbeing
are interrelated but not the same. The main difference, as she explains, may lie in the fact that
wellbeing is more perceived as a solid proficiency, which in the realm of work, is equated to decent
healthcare and retirement accommodations, while she sees happiness as more transient in nature.
Uttley subsequently expresses a sentiment similar to Sethi when she refers to flexible work schedules to
enhance work life balance, and employee engagement to increase a sense of ownership. She also adds
recognition to the list of happiness enhancers, and labels it a simple, yet often overlooked way of
making immense progress in cultivating employees’ happiness levels at work. She warns thereby not to
confuse happiness with job satisfaction either. Job satisfaction is job related, while happiness is a
universal phenomenon, and transcends the bounds of work environments.
Saunderson (2014) adds some interesting aspects to consider when aiming to enhance workplace
happiness. Providing people with work they love is a huge one, and not always possible, of course. But
when and where it can be done, it is a major motivator and a strong source of happiness for employees.
He also cites reputable resources that have commented on the business sense of keeping employees
happy. There seems to be a clear correlation between happy workers and long life, better performance,
and being better citizens, while it has also been proven that disengaged employees are very costly in
multiple ways, such as spreading a negative atmosphere, oftentimes performing less, taking more sick
days, and negatively affecting productivity. What should also not be underestimated is the fact that
reaching out and helping colleagues at work is not only benefiting the receiver, but also the grantor.
Finally, states, Saunderson, we should be aware that being happy enables people to learn better, which
in return, enhances their chances to make career progress.
Reviewing the findings of a comprehensive study amongst more than 12,000 US and
Canadian workers, O’Bannon (2016) posits that when working people are proud of their
workplace, they are at least three times happier than those who are not. When working people
feel appreciated and respected, they also report feeling happier at work, while those who feel that
they are a poor fit report a desire to leave. People who work in smaller work environments seem
to be happier than those who work in major corporations. Similarly, those who work in creative
sectors, such as education, marketing and design, reported higher levels of happiness than those in
finance or legal sectors. Those in senior executive positions seemed to be happier than those at
lower echelons, such as sales and customer service. There are also divergent parameters within
professions and generations to determine happiness. For instance, while accountants want to feel
appreciated, marketers want to engage in work they consider worthwhile, and whereas mil
lennials want to impress, those around their 30 s yearn for a sense of accomplishment. Older
workers generally feel happier than younger ones, and men feel more influential than women in
work related decisions, which also determines their sense of gratification about their work
(O’Bannon 2016).
Valentic adds an aspect that could be easily overlooked as a factor to enhance happiness:
the tidiness of a workplace. While mainly focusing on manufacturing workplaces, Valentic
underscores that employers should ensure safe and hygienic workplaces if they want to keep
a happy workforce. Baek-Kyoo Joo & Lee (2017), who equate work engagement, career
satisfaction, and subjective well-being (SWB) to happiness, expanded this aspect from safety and
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organized minority to the quoted words of Madison or Hamilton,
referring to such creation of a will independent of the people
themselves: “This, at best, is but a precarious security, because a
power independent of the society may as well espouse the unjust
views of the major, as the rightful interests of the minor party, and
may possibly be turned against both parties. The second method
[not the creation of a will independent of the human members of the
society] will be exemplified in the federal republic of the United
States,” the very Constitution of which contains the Fifth Article. We
average Americans are now satisfied, beyond dispute, that neither
Madison nor his associates in the early conventions, to which we will
now return, understood or meant that the Fifth Article would or
should create such an independent will.
Sitting again in the conventions of old, we recall exactly the same
thought expressed by Madison himself in The Federalist, No. 10,
where he says: “When a majority is included in a faction, the form of
popular government, on the other hand, enables it to sacrifice to its
ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other
citizens. To secure the public good and private rights against the
danger of such a faction, and at the same time to preserve the spirit
and form of popular government, is then the great object to which
our inquiries are directed.... Either the existence of the same passion
or interest in a majority at the same time must be prevented, or the
majority, having such co-existent passion or interest, must be
rendered, by their number and local situation, unable to concert and
carry into effect schemes of oppression.” These thoughts, from the
worder of the Fifth Article, sink deep into our minds and hearts as we
sit in those conventions. They come before us with startling
clearness, when we read his words in that Article, “conventions in
three fourths thereof,” and his words in reference to that Fifth Article
mode of procedure, “In requiring more than a majority, and
particularly in computing the proportion by states, not by citizens, it
departs from the national and advances toward the federal
character.” (Fed. No. 39.)
We realize that his mode of procedure is national, in its strict
conformity to the Statute of ’76, that all power over the people must
come directly from the people, but that a judicious mixture of the
federal system, in counting the votes of the people, is the best check
human ingenuity has yet devised to protect individual rights against a
tyrannical majority or an aggressive minority.
CHAPTER XII
TWO ARTICLES NAME “CONVENTIONS”