**1. Introduction**

*"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony." — Mahatma Gandhi*

In the present age, we have been bestowed with the opportunity to witness many pinnacles of scientific and technological ingenuity, the comforts of life that were once beyond imagination are now an everyday reality. There has been an encouraging increase in the number of unorthodox work opportunities and job avenues, where one can transform not only their hobbies into economic pursuits, but also align their personal goals with their professional ones. People are looking toward being happy at work.

Thomas Edison echoed these sentiments and claimed, "I never did a day's work in my life, it was all fun" [1]. More recently, the late Steve Jobs (2005) put his own spin on it by saying, "The only way to do great work is to love what you do," (p. 3) [1].

The construct of happiness has been the subject of intrigue between scientists and philosophers, alike. The Eastern philosophers equated it with self-realization, while the West spoke of Hedonia and Eudemonia.

Aristotle defined the concepts of Hedonics, where happiness is a result of an individual's degree of experience of pleasure versus pain, pleasant feelings vs judgment. Eudaimonic views of happiness underline doing what is virtuous, morally right, true, and meaningful to one's self and realizing one's potential [2].

The rise of positive psychology in the past decade has lent the abstract concept of happiness to empirical research. Happiness has been equated with emotional well-being. Emotional well-being supports the eudemonism philosophy that consists of one's life having a sense of meaning and purpose, the pursuit of excellence, and intense involvement in activities [3].

Psychological well-being comprises six distinct dimensions of wellness (autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations with others, purpose in life, and self-acceptance) [4].

It was believed previously that success at the workplace had no connection with the happiness level of employees. People do not expect their jobs as a path to happiness. It was neither necessary to like the people with whom you work nor even share their values. "Work is *not* personal," the thinking went. It was regarded as drudgery that should be avoided if at all possible. Still, people worked because working is a reflection of being a responsible member of society and the money that we earn from doing work allows us to have a comfortable life.

It was believed that happiness came from relationships, family, and friends. In the business environment, major concerns were profits, demand, supply, efficiency, and productivity. Happiness was rarely given any attention.

The situation began to change a few decades ago when economics and management started discussing about happiness. Colleges and Universities introduced Happiness courses in their curriculum such as "What makes employees happy"?, "Foundations of Happiness at Work," or "How to Create an Enjoyable Work Environment." The Happiness Research Institute in Denmark came up and many books on Happiness flooded the market, like How to Be Happy at Work [5], Powered by Happy: How to Get and Stay Happy at Work [6]. Work Happy: What Great Bosses Know [7], and others.

Research has shown that 50% of our happiness is genetically predetermined, while 40% is the result of our attitude, and just 10% is based on the circumstances of our lives [8]. Therefore, happiness depends a lot on how we react to situations, and that's something we all can control. As a result, even if an employee is in a comfortable environment, he/she will be unhappy at work if he/she has a bad attitude. Embracing a positive mindset filled with gratitude and compassion will lead to happiness at work.

In sum, it appears that happiness is a function of environmental events and circumstances, stable tendencies in the person, and the fit between the two. The important connection between happiness and production has been emphasized in research [9]. Statistical data revealed that happy employees were 12% more productive on average. Research also demonstrated that because of happiness at the workplace, stock prices grew an average 19%, as opposed to a mere 10% for companies with low morale. A Gallup State of the American Workplace study published in 2012 [10] revealed 41% lower health-related costs in employees with high overall well-being and 62% lower costs compared with employees who were "suffering." Greater productivity and performance were related to employee happiness, which in turn benefitted the employer has been reported [11]. Happy people are more productive; therefore,

### *Happiness at Work: A Psychological Perspective DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108241*

organizations can benefit by improving work environments and facilitating unhappy employees to become happier [12].

This made the managers believe that happiness is a way to boost productivity. In the corporate world, happiness gained increased attention. Companies today spend much money on happiness coaches and consultants. Google has a Chief Happiness Officer who is responsible for maintaining high morale among employees.

"We spend more of our lives engaged at work than any other single activity" [13]. This statement reflects the reality of the modern world, especially, during postpandemic, where the boundary between home and work has diminished. People now find themselves spending more time at their work desk because the time consumed in traveling and getting ready for work has reduced to almost nothing. Now the home has become synonymous with workplace.

With so much of human resource investment, it is now more than ever important to reiterate the importance of employee happiness at workplace. Employee happiness leads to positive emotions, that may be linked to ameliorating physical illness or disease [14].

## **2. Happiness vs well-being**

Although the terms are often used interchangeably, there are shades of difference between them. While "hedonism" has been linked with happiness and pleasurable experiences, "eudamonia" corresponds with a holistic sense of well-being. Well-being further forms happiness as it encompasses many positive emotions such as contentment, realizing one's potential, developing a sense of purpose, and establishing positive relationships in life.

'Wellbeing' is a state of contentment whereas "happiness" is a feeling of complete fulfillment, something that is transient and is experienced by all of us at some time or another. There are occasions that make us happy and we tend to cherish the memories of those moments. By contrast, 'well-being' can be sustained over a longer period of time. It includes a set of activities that we carry out to keep ourselves well. Well-being is a gestalt concept that emphasizes happiness but also encompasses domains that support a fulfilling life. Well-being at work can be attained by living a complete and fulfilled life.

Deiner et al. [15] linked well-being with psychological flourishing which is an individual's perceived success. It also includes traits such as optimism, purposeful life, social relationships, engagement in activities, and self-esteem. Davidson [16] speaks of four dimensions of well-being: (i) Differentiation: the ability to distance and break free from negative life patterns and develop one's own value systems, (ii) Attention: the ability to redirect attention and focus on where one wants; being mindful and receptive, rather than reactive, (iii) Goodness: believing in the basic goodness of our fellow human beings and ourselves (iv) Resilience: An ability to persevere when things become difficult

The concept of happiness has been explained by Kahneman [17] who says that there are two systems that relate to feeling good. The first is the actual feeling of the here and now. The second is the remembering, reflecting, and narrating system that decides how satisfied we are with the experience and what was good for us. He believes that we ought to be focused primarily on the first system. Happiness is a central but only one component of well-being. It is the affective element of the subjective experiential element. Happiness can exist without well-being, but well-being can't

exist without happiness. It leads us to physical and emotional aspects which every person is trying to blend into a single and harmonious mixture. Happiness, in today's common usage, is more or less synonymous with "subjective wellbeing" – with the psychological experience of living well. Someone can feel happy or experience life satisfaction without really living well. Happiness is an abstract concept that is difficult to define as there are complex meanings associated with what is really good life.

The theory of Authentic Happiness [18] states that happiness could be analyzed into three different elements: positive emotion (what we feel e.g. pleasure, ecstasy, warmth, comfort etc.), engagement or flow (concentrated attention using cognitive and emotional resources), and meaning (serving something bigger than the self). Each of these elements is better defined and more measurable than happiness.

From the viewpoint of evaluation of happiness, there are two different kinds of distinctions: objective and subjective. Do we want to measure health or the experience of being healthy?, Beauty or the sense of looking ok?, achievements or the sense of achievement? These are *evaluative* considerations. Is one interested in measuring subjective happiness or objective happiness?

Happiness is more close to "living well" whereas well-being is used with a narrower reference to being in good shape physically and mentally [19]. Living well means living an active life and fostering social happiness. Happiness denotes a dynamic concept of "living well" than just having a condition of well-being.
