Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T06:45:32.079Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Happiness at work: Developing a shorter measure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2018

Andrés Salas-Vallina*
Affiliation:
Department of Business Management, University of Valencia, València, Spain Department of Business Management, Florida Universitària, Valencia, Spain
Joaquín Alegre
Affiliation:
Department of Business Management, University of Valencia, València, Spain
*
Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

The notion of happiness at work is becoming increasingly important for human resource management research. Despite the widespread existence of different constructs that capture positive attitudes, a comprehensive measure of individual-level happiness is necessary. Starting from Fisher’s conceptualisation of happiness at work, Salas-Vallina, Alegre, and Fernández developed a 31-item scale to measure happiness at work. This scale accurately captures the different dimensions of happiness in the workplace context. However, it is a long scale. Shorter scales provide major improvements in efficiency and efficacy. Our study, conducted with two diversified samples, conceptualises and measures happiness at work. Following the steps suggested by Stanton, Sinar, Balzer, and Smith and Kacmar, Crawford, Carlson, Ferguson, and Whitten, we provide a shortened version of the happiness at work scale, while maintaining its psychometric properties. We argue that this new measurement scale presents a high statistical potential to widely capture positive attitudes at work and opens undeveloped research possibilities.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abzari, M., Kabiripour, V., & Saeidi, A. (2015). The effect of business ethical values on turnover intention: Mediating role of person-organization fit dimensions. The case of Iranian teachers in public school. Academic Journal of Economic Studies, 1(1), 6581.Google Scholar
Ahire, S. L., Golhar, D. Y., & Waller, M. A. (1996). Development and validation of TQM implementation constructs. Decision Sciences, 27(1), 2356.10.1111/j.1540-5915.1996.tb00842.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, N. J., & Meyer, J. P. (1990). The measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 63(1), 118.10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alvesson, M., & Willmott, H. (1992). On the idea of emancipation in management and organization studies. Academy of Management Review, 17, 432464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, J. C., & Gerbing, D. W. (1982). Some methods for respecifying measurement models to obtain unidimensional construct measures. Journal of Marketing Research, 19(4), 453560.10.1177/002224378201900407CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Armstrong, K. (2004, February 21). Look on the dark side of life. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/feb/21/religion.booksforchildrenandteenagersGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, C., & Hall, L. (2011). Flexible working and happiness in the NHS. Employee Relations, 33(2), 88105.10.1108/01425451111096659CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baas, M., De Dreu, C. K. W., & Nijstad, B. A. (2008). A meta-analysis of 25 years of mood-creativity research: Hedonic tone, activation, or regulatory focus. Psychological Bulletin, 134(6), 779806.10.1037/a0012815CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bagozzi, R. P., Yi, Y., & Phillips, L. W. (1991). Assessing construct validity in organizational research. Administration Science Quarterly, 36(3), 421458.10.2307/2393203CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2007). The Job Demands‐Resources model: State of the art. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 22(3), 309328.10.1108/02683940710733115CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2008). Towards a model of work engagement. Career Development International, 13(3), 209223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baldus, B. J., Voorhees, C., & Calantone, R. (2015). Online brand community engagement: Scale development and validation. Journal of Business Research, 68(5), 978985.10.1016/j.jbusres.2014.09.035CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brayfield, A. H., & Rothe, H. F. (1951). An index of job satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 35(5), 307311.10.1037/h0055617CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiva, R., & Alegre, J. (2009). Organizational learning capability and job satisfaction: An empirical assessment in the ceramic tile industry. British Journal of Management, 20(3), 323340.10.1111/j.1467-8551.2008.00586.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiva, R., Alegre, J., & Lapiedra, R. (2007). Measuring organisational learning capability among the workforce. International Journal of Manpower, 28(3/4), 224242.10.1108/01437720710755227CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, J., & Cohen, P. (1983). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
DeGroot, T., Kiker, D. S., & Cross, T. C. (2000). A meta-analysis to review organizational outcomes related to charismatic leadership. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, 17, 356371.10.1111/j.1936-4490.2000.tb00234.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Del Barrio, S., & Luque, T. (2000). Análisis de ecuaciones estructurales. In T. T. Luque (Ed.), Análisis de Datos en Investigación de Mercados (pp. 489557). Madrid: Ediciones Pirámide.Google Scholar
Diener, E. (1984). Subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 95(3), 542575.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Diener, E. (2000). Subjective well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 3443.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Diener, E., Kahneman, D., Tov, W., & Arora, R. (2010). Income’s association with judgments of life versus feelings. In E. Diener, J. Helliwell, & D. Kahneman (Eds.), International differences in well-being (pp. 315). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199732739.003.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diener, E., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Beyond money: Toward an economy of well-being. Psychological Science, 5(1), 131.Google ScholarPubMed
Dirks, K. T., & Ferrin, D. L. (2002). Trust in leadership: Meta-analytic findings and implications for research and practice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 611628.10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.611CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Doughty, H. (2004). Employee empowerment: Democracy or delusion? The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal, 9, 124.Google Scholar
Edgar, F., Geare, A., Halhjem, M., Reese, K., & Thoresen, C. (2015). Well-being and performance: Measurement issues for HRM research. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26(15), 19831994. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1041760.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Felber, C. (2015). The economy for common good. London: Zed Books Ltd.Google Scholar
Fernandez-Lores, S., Gavilan, D., Avello, M., & Blasco, Fr. (2015). Affective commitment to the employer brand: Development and validation of a scale. Business Research Quarterly, 19(1), 4054. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.brq.2015.06.001.Google Scholar
Fineman, S. (2006). On being positive: Concerns and counterpoints. Academy of Management Review, 31(2), 270291.10.5465/amr.2006.20208680CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, C. (2010). Happiness at work. International Journal of Management Reviews, 12(4), 384412.10.1111/j.1468-2370.2009.00270.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, C. D. (1980). On the dubious wisdom of expecting job satisfaction to correlate with performance. Academy of Management Review, 5(4), 607612.10.5465/amr.1980.4288967CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, C. D. (2000). Mood and emotion while working: Missing pieces of job satisfaction? Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 21(2), 185202.10.1002/(SICI)1099-1379(200003)21:2<185::AID-JOB34>3.0.CO;2-M3.0.CO;2-M>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error: Algebra and statistics. Journal of Marketing Research, 382388.10.1177/002224378101800313CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56(3), 218226.10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.218CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gatignon, H., Tushman, M. L., Smith, W., & Anderson, P. (2002). A structural approach to assessing innovation: Construct development of innovation locus, type, and characteristics. Management Science, 48(9), 11031122.10.1287/mnsc.48.9.1103.174CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerbing, D., & Anderson, J. (1988). An updated paradigm for scale development incorporating unidimensionality and its assessment. Journal of Marketing Research, 25(2), 186192.10.1177/002224378802500207CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1975). Development of the job diagnostic survey. Journal of Applied Psychology, 60(2), 159170.10.1037/h0076546CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hair, J. F., , Jr, Sarstedt, M., Hopkins, L., & Kuppelwieser, V. G. (2014). Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) An emerging tool in business research. European Business Review, 26(2), 106121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, D. A., Newman, D. A., & Roth, P. L. (2006). How important are job attitudes? Meta-analytic comparisons of integrative behavioral outcomes and time sequences. Academy of Management Journal, 49(2), 305325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, H. F., Anderson, R. E., Tatham, R. L., & Black, W. C. (2014). Multivariate data analysis. Harlow: Pearson.Google Scholar
Hartmann, L. C., & Bambacas, M. (2000). Organizational commitment: A multi-method scale analysis and test of effects. The International Journal of Organisational Analysis, 8(1), 89108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higgs, M., & Dulewicz, V. (2014). Antecedents of well-being: a study to examine the extent to which personality and emotional intelligence contribute to well-being. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(5), 718735.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holden, R. R., & Fekken, G. C. (1990). Structured psychopathological test item characteristics and validity. Psychological Assessment, 2(1), 3540.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huppert, F. A., & So, T. T. (2013). Flourishing across Europe: Application of a new conceptual framework for defining well-being. Social Indicators Research, 110(3), 837861.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kacmar, K. M., Crawford, W. S., Carlson, D. S., Ferguson, M., & Whitten, D. (2014). A short and valid measure of work-family enrichment. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 19(1), 3245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahn, W. A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. Academy of Management Journal, 33(4), 692724.Google Scholar
Kashdan, T. B., Biswas-Diener, R., & King, L. A. (2008). Reconsidering happiness: The costs of distinguishing between hedonics and eudaimonia. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 3(4), 219233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kesebir, P., & Diener, E. (2008). In pursuit of happiness: Empirical answers to philosophical questions. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3(2), 117125.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kolodinsky, R. W., Ritchie, W. J., & Kuna, W. A. (2017). Meaningful engagement: Impacts of a ‘calling’ work orientation and perceived leadership support. Journal of Management & Organization, 118. https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2017.19.Google Scholar
Kristensen, N., & Johansson, E. (2008). New evidence on cross-country differences in job satisfaction using anchoring vignettes. Labour Economics, 15(1), 96117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, J. Y., Park, S., & Baker, R. (2017). The moderating role of top management support on employees’ attitudes in response to human resource development efforts. Journal of Management & Organization, 119. https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2017.37.Google Scholar
Lee, K., & Allen, N. (2002). Organizational citizenship behavior and workplace deviance: The role of affect and cognitions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(1), 131142.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
LePine, J. A., Erez, A., & Johnson, D. E. (2002). The nature and dimensionality of organizational citizenship behavior: a critical review and meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(1), 5265.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Llorens, S., Schaufeli, W., Bakker, A., & Salanova, M. (2007). Does a positive gain spiral of resources, efficacy beliefs and engagement exist? Computers in Human Behavior, 23(1), 825841.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Locke, E. A. (1976). The nature and causes of job satisfaction. In M. D. Dunette (Ed.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 12971343). Chicago, IL: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
Luthans, F. (2002). The need for and meaning of positive organizational behaviour. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23(6), 695706.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyubomirsky, S., & Lepper, H. S. (1999). A measure of subjective happiness: Preliminary reliability and construct validation. Social Indicators Research, 46(2), 137155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131(6), 803855.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macey, W. H., & Schneider, B. (2008). The meaning of employee engagement. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1(1), 330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maslow, A. H. (1954). The instinctoid nature of basic needs. Journal of Personality, 22(3), 326347.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mathieu, C., Fabi, B., Lacoursière, R., & Raymond, L. (2016). The role of supervisory behavior, job satisfaction and organizational commitment on employee turnover. Journal of Management & Organization, 22(1), 113129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, R. A., Kath, L. M., & Barnes-Farrell, J. L. (2010). A short, valid, predictive measure of work–family conflict: Item selection and scale validation. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 15(1), 7590. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, J. P., & Allen, N. J. (1984). Testing the ‘side-bet theory’ of organizational commitment: Some methodological considerations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 69(3), 372378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, J. P., & Allen, N. J. (1997). Commitment in the workplace. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Meyer, J. P., Stanley, D. J., Herscovitch, L., & Topolnytsky, L. (2002). Affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization: A meta-analysis of antecedents, correlates, and consequences. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 61(1), 2052.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moorman, R. H. (1993). The influence of cognitive and affective based job satisfaction measures on the relationship between satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior. Human Relations, 46(6), 759776.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgeson, F. P., & Humphrey, S. E. (2006). The Work Design Questionnaire (WDQ): developing and validating a comprehensive measure for assessing job design and the nature of work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(6), 13211339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mowday, R. T. (1998). Reflections on the study and relevance of organizational commitment. Human Resource Management Review, 8(4), 387401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Organ, D. W. (1988). Organizational citizenship behaviour: The good soldier syndrome. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Pekrun, R., Elliot, A. J., & Maier, M. A. (2006). Achievement goals and discrete achievement emotions: A theoretical model and prospective test. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98(3), 583597.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J. Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879903.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Moorman, R. H., & Fetter, R. (1990). Transformational leader behaviors and their effects on followers’ trust in leader, satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behaviors. The Leadership Quarterly, 1(2), 107142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pryce-Jones, J., & Lindsay, J. (2014). What happiness at work is and how to use it. Industrial and Commercial Training, 46(3), 130134.Google Scholar
Rafferty, A. E., & Griffin, M. A. (2004). Dimensions of transformational leadership: Conceptual and empirical extensions. The Leadership Quarterly, 15(3), 329354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reis, H. T., Sheldon, K. M., Gable, S. L., Roscoe, J., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). Daily well-being: The role of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(4), 419435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogelberg, S. G., & Luong, A. (1998). Nonresponse to mailed surveys: A review and guide. Current Directions in Psychological Science , 7(2), 6065.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2001). On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 141166.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(6), 10691081.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sackett, P. R., & Larson, J. R. Jr. (1990). Research strategies and tactics in industrial and organizational psychology. In M. D. Dunnette, & L. M. Hough (Eds.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 419489). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.Google Scholar
Salas-Vallina, A., Alegre, J., & Fernández, R. (2017a). On the road to happiness at work (HAW): Transformational leadership, organizational learning capability and happiness at work. Personnel Review, 46(2), 314338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salas-Vallina, A., Alegre, J., & Fernández, R. (2017b). Happiness at work and organisational citizenship behaviour: Is organisational learning a missing link? International Journal of Manpower, 38(3), 470488.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaufeli, W. B., & Bakker, A. B. (2004). Job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25(3), 293315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaufeli, W. B., & Bakker, A. B. (2010). Defining and measuring work engagement: Bringing clarity to the concept. Work Engagement: A Handbook of Essential Theory and Research (pp. 1024). New York, NY: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Schaufeli, W. B., Salanova, M., González-Roma, V., & Bakker, A. B. (2002). The measurement of engagement and burnout: A two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. The Journal of Happiness Studies, 3(1), 7192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schriesheim, C., & Tsui, A. S. (1980). Development and validation of a short satisfaction instrument for use in survey feedback intervention. Paper presented at the Western Academy of Management Meeting, Detroit.Google Scholar
Seligman, M. E. P. (1999). The president’s address. American Psychologist, 54, 559562.Google Scholar
Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Positive psychology, positive prevention, and positive therapy. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sharma, N. P., Sharma, T., & Agarwal, M. N. (2016). Measuring employee perception of performance management system effectiveness: Conceptualization and scale development. Employee Relations, 38(2), 224247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, S., & Aggarwal, Y. (2017). Happiness at work scale: Construction and psychometric validation of a measure using mixed method approach. Journal of Happiness Studies, 125. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-017-9882-xGoogle Scholar
Smith, J. (2012). The companies with the biggest jumps in employee happiness. Forbes. Retrieved June 5, 2017, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/08/17/the-companies-with-the-biggest-jumps-in-employee-happiness/#44fb9e9d7b52.Google Scholar
Smith, P. C., Kendall, L. M., Huling, C. L., Balzer, W. K., Kihm, J. A., Irwin, J. L., & Parra, L. (1969). Job Descriptive Index (1997 Revision) and The Job in General Scales.Google Scholar
Spence, J. R., Brown, D. J., Keeping, L. M., & Lian, H. (2014). Helpful today, but not tomorrow? Feeling grateful as a predictor of daily organizational citizenship behaviors. Personnel Psychology, 67(3), 705738.Google Scholar
Stanton, J. M., Sinar, E., Balzer, W., & Smith, P. (2002). Issues and strategies for reducing the length of self-report scales. Personnel Psychology, 55(1), 167194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sulkowski, L. (2013). Strategic management as the ideology of power. Journal of Intercultural Management, 5(3), 511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2001). Principal components and factor analysis. Using Multivariate Statistics, 4, 582633.Google Scholar
Thomas, C. W, & Petersen, D. M. (1982). Methodological issues in attitude scale construction. The Journal of Social Psychology, 116(2), 245253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Veenhoven, R. (1991). Is happiness relative? Social Indicators Research, 24(1), 134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vigoda, E., & Cohen, A. (2002). Influence tactics and perceptions of organizational politics. A longitudinal study. Journal of Business Research, 55(4), 311324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walsh, G., Albrecht, A. K., Hofacker, I. G., & Takahashi, I. (2016). Developing and validating a scale of consumer brand embarrassment tendencies. Journal of Business Research, 69(3), 11381147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warr, P. (2007). Work, happiness, and unhappiness. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Warr, P. (2013). Fuentes de felicidad e infelicidad en el trabajo: Una perspectiva combinada. Revista de Psicología del Trabajo y de las Organizaciones, 29, 99106. https://doi.org/10.5093/tr2013a15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warr, P., & Inceoglu, I. (2012). Job engagement, job satisfaction, and contrasting associations with person–job fit. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 17(2), 129138.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weiss, H. M. (2002). Introductory comments: Antecedents of emotional experiences at work. Motivation and Emotion, 26(1), 12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiss, H. M., & Cropanzano, R. (1996). Affective events theory: A theoretical discussion of the structure, causes and consequences of affective experiences at work. Research in Organizational Behavior, 18, 174.Google Scholar
Wright, B. E., Moynihan, D. P., & Pandey, S. K. (2012). Pulling the levers: Transformational leadership, public service motivation and mission valence. Public Administration Review, 72(2), 206215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xanthopoulou, D., Bakker, A. B., & Ilies, R. (2012). Everyday working life: Explaining within-person fluctuations in employee well-being. Human Relations, 65(9), 10511069.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, J. S., & Hung, H. V. (2016). Happy workers value effort, sad workers value reward. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 28(11), 1591–1624.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zigarmi, D., Nimon, K., Houson, D., Witt, D, & Diehl, J. (2009). Beyond engagement: Toward a framework and operational definition for employee work passion. Human Resource Development Review, 8(3), 300326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar