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An outline of Happiness Index

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 CnR’s International Journal of Social & Scientific Research, India
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 government to distract from human rights abuses

in the nation.
Over the last 10 years, research in the area of
happiness has exploded, creating a wealth of METHODOLOGY
empirical knowledge about mechanisms and
processes that make people happy. The most The World Happiness Index is an alteration of
accepted a outcome in this field is that work the Human Development Index as it adopts the
contributes quite substantially to well-being and same statistical aggregation method. It aims to
happiness. With the rise of positive psychology measure the happiness of countries and it defines
in the past decade, there has also been an the following themes as preconditions for a
increased interest in the bright side of happy country:
organizational life, paying attention to positive
phenomena such as engagement, well-being, job  peace and security
satisfaction, or positive affective experiences at
 freedom, democracy and human rights
work.
 living standards
HISTORY OF WORLD HAPPINESS INDEX  research, education, information,
communication and culture
World Happiness Index was generated by
Pierre le Roy, initiator of GLOBECO. Since the REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES
year 2000, the world happiness index is AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
calculated to quantify world happiness per
nation. It emphases on collective, country-level According to Maenapothi (2007), happiness at
happiness and purposes to capture development the workplace means a situation at the workplace
and not the statistical situation of the country. when personnel are happy working and not
feeling like it is work, are efficient and achieve
Gross National Happiness (GNH) is a growth targeted goals, both at the personnel and
viewpoint as well as an index which is used to organizational levels. Five factors account for
measure the collective happiness in a country. happiness at the workplace:
The concept was first coined in Bhutan. The
term 'Gross National Happiness' was created in 1) Job inspiration: employees are satisfied with
1979 during an dialogue at Bombay airport when their assigned job, and are able to achieve goals.
the then monarch of Bhutan, Jigme Singye
Wangchuck, said "We do not believe in Gross 2) Organization’s shared value: collective
National Product. Gross National Happiness is behaviors and culture of the organization.
more important." The expression has been
defined as propaganda by the Bhutanese

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 CnR’s International Journal of Social & Scientific Research, India
3) Relationship: there are interaction, group organization. He also found that personnel aged
bonding and acceptance among co-workers. 20-34 were more happy at work than those aged
35-49, and that female personnel were more
4) Quality of work life: the relationship between happy than male.
3 elements, namely work environment,
employee participation, and humanization of 4.Ouyprasert (2009) found that the level of
work. The good balance among the 3 elements happiness at work was high level (mean=3.49).
results in collective satisfaction which leads to Age and education level had no effect on 5
the highest level of efficiency. factors of happiness at statistical significant level
of 0.05. Variables that significantly predicted
5) Leadership: executives or heads of the happiness at work of employees were
organization promote and create happiness for relationship, organization’s shared value and
personnel when they work by creating quality of work life. The prediction ability was at
motivation, awareness, and dedication in their 77.4% (Adjusted R Square=0.774)
subordinates. Leaders also engage in 2-way,
transparent communication with their staff and 5. Fapinyo (2009) shown that the level of
they themselves are dedicated to create good employees happiness at work was at moderate
atmosphere for their staff as well. level. Five factors that led to happiness at work
and were able to predict happiness at work were
Summary of the theory used in this research is as job inspiration, organization’s shared value,
follows: relationship, leadership, and quality of wok life.
The prediction ability was at 70.7% (Adjusted R
1. Ongkana ( 2006) between personal factors Square=0.707)
and happiness at work, she found that
educational level positively correlated with OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
happiness at work at the low level; and self-
value awareness and work environment Two Canadians, Michael and Martha Pennock,
positively correlated with happiness at work at played a major role in developing the Bhutanese
Ongkana ( 2006) found that happiness of nurses GNH survey. They developed a shorter
from private hospitals in Bangkok was at the international version of the survey which has
high level. In terms of the relationship the been used in their home region of Victoria BC as
medium level. Age, marital status, and work well as in Brazil. The Pennocks also collaborated
experience had no relation to happiness at work. with Ura in the production of a policy lens which
is used by the Bhutanese GNH Commission for
2. Maenapothi (2007) measured the level of anticipating the impact of policy initiatives upon
happiness of the samples to find that it was at the the levels of GNH in Bhutan.
high level or at the average of 3.487. The tool to
measure level of happiness had reliability level GNH was later articulated as nine domains,
of 0.9577 when used to measure opinion on which provides a further level of conceptual
happiness at work, and 0.9542 when used to analysis for policy making. These are:
measure current happiness. She concluded that psychological well-being, health, time use,
the tool to measure happiness level had high education, cultural diversity and resilience, good
reliability rate and that it was practical to use. governance, community vitality, ecological
diversity and resilience, and living standards.
3. Poopanit (2008) found that opinion towards
happiness at work which was ranked at the Adam Kramer, a psychologist from the
highest level was social relationship within the University of Oregon, has developed a
organization; and that which was ranked at the behavioral model of "Gross National Happiness"
lowest level was benefits provided by the based on the use of positive and negative words

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 CnR’s International Journal of Social & Scientific Research, India
in social network status updates, resulting in a Pakistan 80
quantitative GNH metric. Nepal 99
Bangladesh 110
The former king of Thailand, Bhumibol Iraq 117
Adulyadej, was a close friend of King Jigme Sri Lanka 120
Singye Wangchuck and conceived the similar
philosophy of “Sufficiency Economy.” In 2016, India ranked poorly 122 on a list of the world’s
Thailand launched its own GNH center. happiest countries. It has dropped four slots from
last year and has come behind China, Pakistan
The current prime minister of Bhutan, Tshering and Nepal.
Tobgay, has preferred to focus on more concrete
goals instead of promoting GNH. according to The World Happiness Report 2017,
Norway ranks as the happiest country in the
GNH IMPLEMENTATION world. The World Happiness Report 2017 ranks
155 countries by their happiness levels.
The implementation of a GNH policy can be Displacing Denmark, Norway jumped up three
challenging as it requires considerable spots from last year.
institutional support. In Bhutan, the
implementation – or mainstreaming – of GNH India was 118 in the 2013-2015 report , but it
into political institutions has been a gradual slided down on the 122nd spot this year. The
process for several decades but recently parameters which maps happiness are social
accelerated with the introduction of the GNH support, GDP per capita, generosity , freedom to
Index and the GNH Screening Tool. make life choices, healthy life expectancy and
perceptions of corruption.
As part of a lengthy and ongoing process of
integrating the GNH philosophy into public Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Sustainable
policy, the GNH Index was developed by the Development Solutions Network said that “The
Centre for Bhutan Studies (CBS) to help World Happiness Report continues to draw
measure the progress of Bhutanese society. In global attention around the need to create sound
2010, the first nationwide GNH survey was policy for what matters most to people — their
conducted with a sample size of 8,510 Bhutanese well-being.”
aged 15 and above. The second nationwide
survey was conducted in 2015 and had a sample He added “As demonstrated by many countries,
size of 8,871. After all three rounds of surveys, this report gives evidence that happiness is a
follow-up interviews and additional data result of creating strong social foundations. It’s
gathering was conducted in order to review and time to build social trust and healthy lives, not
refine the survey. The GNH survey covers all guns or walls. Let’s hold our leaders to this
twenty districts (Dzonkhag) and results are fact.”
reported for varying demographic factors such as
gender, age, abode, and occupation. The survey Top ten countries in order were Denmark,
therefore provides a rich dataset to compare the Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, Netherlands,
happiness between different groups of citizens, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden.
and how this has changed over time. The US dropped down one spot down to
rank14th.
INDIA’S RANKING ON GLOBAL SCALE
Despite recent declines in oil prices, oil-rich
Nations ranks Norway still moved into the top spot, illustrating
India 122 once more that high happiness depends on much
China 79 more than income, it said.

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 CnR’s International Journal of Social & Scientific Research, India
This year the report gives special attention to the income, family, health and spirituality as their
social foundations of happiness, including most important requirements for happiness (The
happiness at workplace. Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Bhutan to
the United Nations in New York).
The World Happiness Report 2017 looks at
trends in the data recording how highly people CRITICISMS OF THE GROSS NATIONAL
evaluate their lives on a scale running from 0 to HAPPINESS INDEX
10. The rankings, which are based on surveys in
155 countries covering the three years 2014- In spite of the admiration of the Gross National
2016, reveal an average score of 5.3 (out of 10) Happiness Index in Bhutan, it has received
substantial criticism from other regions. One of
MEASURING THE GROSS NATIONAL the largest criticisms of GNH is that the domains
HAPPINESS INDEX and indicators are relatively subjective. Critics
claim that because of the subjectivity of the
Measuring the Gross National Happiness Index indicators it is moreover difficult to get an
comprises of 33 indicators that originate from accurate quantitative measurement on happiness.
nine diverse core areas. The domains within They also say that due to the subjectivity,
GNH are the components of happiness and each governments may be able to change GNH results
one is equally weighted in the index. in a way that best suits their interests.

The nine domains of GNH are: Still other critics claim that the definition and
therefore the ranking of happiness differs
1) Education country by country and that it is problematic to
2) Good governance use Bhutan's indicators as measurements to
3) Cultural diversity and resilience assess happiness and progress in other countries.
4) Psychological well-being For example people in France may rate
5) Time use education or living standards differently than
6) Health people in Bhutan or India.
7) Community vitality
8) Living standard Despite these criticisms however, it is imperative
9) Ecological diversity and resilience to note that GNH is an altered and important
way to simply look at economic and social
Kingdom of Bhutan has made a permanent progress round the globe.
mission to the United Nations in New York to
include four larger pillars of GNH. The pillars REFERENCES
are 1) Conservation of the Environment, 2)
Sustainable and Equitable Socio-Economic  http://indianexpress.com/article/india/in
Development, 3) Good Governance and 4) dia-ranks-a-low-122-among-worlds-
Preservation and Promotion of Culture. happiest-countries-pakistan-nepal-fare-
better-4578297/
It is the nine core areas and their 33 indicators
though that makes up the quantifiable  http://wikiprogress.org/articles/happines
measurement of GNH. The first authorized GNH s-subjective-well-being/world-
pilot survey was piloted by the Center for happiness-index/
Bhutan studies from late 2006 to early 2007. The  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_Nati
results of this survey showed that more than 68% onal_Happiness#History
of Bhutan's people were happy and they rated

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