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CnR’s International Journal of Social & Scientific Research, India
31 | P a g e CnR’s IJSSR: April-June 2017 Vol.03 Issue (I) ISSN: 2454-3187 PIF: 1.364
8. “An outline of ‘Happiness Index’”
Ms. Hetal N. Bhinde,
Ph.D. Research Scholar, North Maharashtra University.
Abstract: Recently, the interested of researcher has been diverted to the area of ‘Happiness Index’. Many
countries are now measuring their growth in correlation with ‘Happiness Index’ of nation’s population.
This paper tries to give a brief about the work done by researchers in domain of ‘Happiness Index’ The
research even tries to analyses current situation of global happiness. It helps to study criticism that is
being observed in measurement of ‘Happiness Index’
INTRODUCTION
Over the last 10 years, research in the area of
happiness has exploded, creating a wealth of
empirical knowledge about mechanisms and
processes that make people happy. The most
accepted a outcome in this field is that work
contributes quite substantially to well-being and
happiness. With the rise of positive psychology
in the past decade, there has also been an
increased interest in the bright side of
organizational life, paying attention to positive
phenomena such as engagement, well-being, job
satisfaction, or positive affective experiences at
work.
HISTORY OF WORLD HAPPINESS INDEX
World Happiness Index was generated by
Pierre le Roy, initiator of GLOBECO. Since the
year 2000, the world happiness index is
calculated to quantify world happiness per
nation. It emphases on collective, country-level
happiness and purposes to capture development
and not the statistical situation of the country.
Gross National Happiness (GNH) is a growth
viewpoint as well as an index which is used to
measure the collective happiness in a country.
The concept was first coined in Bhutan. The
term 'Gross National Happiness' was created in
1979 during an dialogue at Bombay airport when
the then monarch of Bhutan, Jigme Singye
Wangchuck, said "We do not believe in Gross
National Product. Gross National Happiness is
more important." The expression has been
defined as propaganda by the Bhutanese
government to distract from human rights abuses
in the nation.
METHODOLOGY
The World Happiness Index is an alteration of
the Human Development Index as it adopts the
same statistical aggregation method. It aims to
measure the happiness of countries and it defines
the following themes as preconditions for a
happy country:
peace and security
freedom, democracy and human rights
living standards
research, education, information,
communication and culture
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES
AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
According to Maenapothi (2007), happiness at
the workplace means a situation at the workplace
when personnel are happy working and not
feeling like it is work, are efficient and achieve
targeted goals, both at the personnel and
organizational levels. Five factors account for
happiness at the workplace:
1) Job inspiration: employees are satisfied with
their assigned job, and are able to achieve goals.
2) Organization’s shared value: collective
behaviors and culture of the organization.
CnR’s International Journal of Social & Scientific Research, India
32 | P a g e CnR’s IJSSR: April-June 2017 Vol.03 Issue (I) ISSN: 2454-3187 PIF: 1.364
3) Relationship: there are interaction, group
bonding and acceptance among co-workers.
4) Quality of work life: the relationship between
3 elements, namely work environment,
employee participation, and humanization of
work. The good balance among the 3 elements
results in collective satisfaction which leads to
the highest level of efficiency.
5) Leadership: executives or heads of the
organization promote and create happiness for
personnel when they work by creating
motivation, awareness, and dedication in their
subordinates. Leaders also engage in 2-way,
transparent communication with their staff and
they themselves are dedicated to create good
atmosphere for their staff as well.
Summary of the theory used in this research is as
follows:
1. Ongkana ( 2006) between personal factors
and happiness at work, she found that
educational level positively correlated with
happiness at work at the low level; and self-
value awareness and work environment
positively correlated with happiness at work at
Ongkana ( 2006) found that happiness of nurses
from private hospitals in Bangkok was at the
high level. In terms of the relationship the
medium level. Age, marital status, and work
experience had no relation to happiness at work.
2. Maenapothi (2007) measured the level of
happiness of the samples to find that it was at the
high level or at the average of 3.487. The tool to
measure level of happiness had reliability level
of 0.9577 when used to measure opinion on
happiness at work, and 0.9542 when used to
measure current happiness. She concluded that
the tool to measure happiness level had high
reliability rate and that it was practical to use.
3. Poopanit (2008) found that opinion towards
happiness at work which was ranked at the
highest level was social relationship within the
organization; and that which was ranked at the
lowest level was benefits provided by the
organization. He also found that personnel aged
20-34 were more happy at work than those aged
35-49, and that female personnel were more
happy than male.
4.Ouyprasert (2009) found that the level of
happiness at work was high level (mean=3.49).
Age and education level had no effect on 5
factors of happiness at statistical significant level
of 0.05. Variables that significantly predicted
happiness at work of employees were
relationship, organization’s shared value and
quality of work life. The prediction ability was at
77.4% (Adjusted R Square=0.774)
5. Fapinyo (2009) shown that the level of
employees happiness at work was at moderate
level. Five factors that led to happiness at work
and were able to predict happiness at work were
job inspiration, organization’s shared value,
relationship, leadership, and quality of wok life.
The prediction ability was at 70.7% (Adjusted R
Square=0.707)
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
Two Canadians, Michael and Martha Pennock,
played a major role in developing the Bhutanese
GNH survey. They developed a shorter
international version of the survey which has
been used in their home region of Victoria BC as
well as in Brazil. The Pennocks also collaborated
with Ura in the production of a policy lens which
is used by the Bhutanese GNH Commission for
anticipating the impact of policy initiatives upon
the levels of GNH in Bhutan.
GNH was later articulated as nine domains,
which provides a further level of conceptual
analysis for policy making. These are:
psychological well-being, health, time use,
education, cultural diversity and resilience, good
governance, community vitality, ecological
diversity and resilience, and living standards.
Adam Kramer, a psychologist from the
University of Oregon, has developed a
behavioral model of "Gross National Happiness"
based on the use of positive and negative words
CnR’s International Journal of Social & Scientific Research, India
33 | P a g e CnR’s IJSSR: April-June 2017 Vol.03 Issue (I) ISSN: 2454-3187 PIF: 1.364
in social network status updates, resulting in a
quantitative GNH metric.
The former king of Thailand, Bhumibol
Adulyadej, was a close friend of King Jigme
Singye Wangchuck and conceived the similar
philosophy of “Sufficiency Economy.” In 2016,
Thailand launched its own GNH center.
The current prime minister of Bhutan, Tshering
Tobgay, has preferred to focus on more concrete
goals instead of promoting GNH.
GNH IMPLEMENTATION
The implementation of a GNH policy can be
challenging as it requires considerable
institutional support. In Bhutan, the
implementation – or mainstreaming – of GNH
into political institutions has been a gradual
process for several decades but recently
accelerated with the introduction of the GNH
Index and the GNH Screening Tool.
As part of a lengthy and ongoing process of
integrating the GNH philosophy into public
policy, the GNH Index was developed by the
Centre for Bhutan Studies (CBS) to help
measure the progress of Bhutanese society. In
2010, the first nationwide GNH survey was
conducted with a sample size of 8,510 Bhutanese
aged 15 and above. The second nationwide
survey was conducted in 2015 and had a sample
size of 8,871. After all three rounds of surveys,
follow-up interviews and additional data
gathering was conducted in order to review and
refine the survey. The GNH survey covers all
twenty districts (Dzonkhag) and results are
reported for varying demographic factors such as
gender, age, abode, and occupation. The survey
therefore provides a rich dataset to compare the
happiness between different groups of citizens,
and how this has changed over time.
INDIA’S RANKING ON GLOBAL SCALE
Nations
ranks
India
122
China
79
Pakistan
80
Nepal
99
Bangladesh
110
Iraq
117
Sri Lanka
120
India ranked poorly 122 on a list of the world’s
happiest countries. It has dropped four slots from
last year and has come behind China, Pakistan
and Nepal.
according to The World Happiness Report 2017,
Norway ranks as the happiest country in the
world. The World Happiness Report 2017 ranks
155 countries by their happiness levels.
Displacing Denmark, Norway jumped up three
spots from last year.
India was 118 in the 2013-2015 report , but it
slided down on the 122nd spot this year. The
parameters which maps happiness are social
support, GDP per capita, generosity , freedom to
make life choices, healthy life expectancy and
perceptions of corruption.
Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Sustainable
Development Solutions Network said that “The
World Happiness Report continues to draw
global attention around the need to create sound
policy for what matters most to people — their
well-being.”
He added “As demonstrated by many countries,
this report gives evidence that happiness is a
result of creating strong social foundations. It’s
time to build social trust and healthy lives, not
guns or walls. Let’s hold our leaders to this
fact.”
Top ten countries in order were Denmark,
Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, Netherlands,
Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden.
The US dropped down one spot down to
rank14th.
Despite recent declines in oil prices, oil-rich
Norway still moved into the top spot, illustrating
once more that high happiness depends on much
more than income, it said.
CnR’s International Journal of Social & Scientific Research, India
34 | P a g e CnR’s IJSSR: April-June 2017 Vol.03 Issue (I) ISSN: 2454-3187 PIF: 1.364
This year the report gives special attention to the
social foundations of happiness, including
happiness at workplace.
The World Happiness Report 2017 looks at
trends in the data recording how highly people
evaluate their lives on a scale running from 0 to
10. The rankings, which are based on surveys in
155 countries covering the three years 2014-
2016, reveal an average score of 5.3 (out of 10)
MEASURING THE GROSS NATIONAL
HAPPINESS INDEX
Measuring the Gross National Happiness Index
comprises of 33 indicators that originate from
nine diverse core areas. The domains within
GNH are the components of happiness and each
one is equally weighted in the index.
The nine domains of GNH are:
1) Education
2) Good governance
3) Cultural diversity and resilience
4) Psychological well-being
5) Time use
6) Health
7) Community vitality
8) Living standard
9) Ecological diversity and resilience
Kingdom of Bhutan has made a permanent
mission to the United Nations in New York to
include four larger pillars of GNH. The pillars
are 1) Conservation of the Environment, 2)
Sustainable and Equitable Socio-Economic
Development, 3) Good Governance and 4)
Preservation and Promotion of Culture.
It is the nine core areas and their 33 indicators
though that makes up the quantifiable
measurement of GNH. The first authorized GNH
pilot survey was piloted by the Center for
Bhutan studies from late 2006 to early 2007. The
results of this survey showed that more than 68%
of Bhutan's people were happy and they rated
income, family, health and spirituality as their
most important requirements for happiness (The
Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Bhutan to
the United Nations in New York).
CRITICISMS OF THE GROSS NATIONAL
HAPPINESS INDEX
In spite of the admiration of the Gross National
Happiness Index in Bhutan, it has received
substantial criticism from other regions. One of
the largest criticisms of GNH is that the domains
and indicators are relatively subjective. Critics
claim that because of the subjectivity of the
indicators it is moreover difficult to get an
accurate quantitative measurement on happiness.
They also say that due to the subjectivity,
governments may be able to change GNH results
in a way that best suits their interests.
Still other critics claim that the definition and
therefore the ranking of happiness differs
country by country and that it is problematic to
use Bhutan's indicators as measurements to
assess happiness and progress in other countries.
For example people in France may rate
education or living standards differently than
people in Bhutan or India.
Despite these criticisms however, it is imperative
to note that GNH is an altered and important
way to simply look at economic and social
progress round the globe.
REFERENCES
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/in
dia-ranks-a-low-122-among-worlds-
happiest-countries-pakistan-nepal-fare-
better-4578297/
http://wikiprogress.org/articles/happines
s-subjective-well-being/world-
happiness-index/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_Nati
onal_Happiness#History