An analytical study of employee happiness in service sectors: A pilot study

Abstract

The present paper aims to investigate happiness levels of employees in services and underpin disparate evidences from existing literature, to any reported differences in the levels of happiness among employees. This paper investigated happiness among employees (n = 360) of Insurance, Telecommunication and Banking sectors. Happiness level was mapped across organization type, management level, gender and age to examine if happiness varies according to these factors. Happiness was measured on a three point categorical scale that included items related to physical, mental and social wellbeing of an individual. Descriptive statistics, independent measures ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to examine different research questions in the study. The results revealed that happiness was higher in the public sector organizations compared to private sector companies. While there was no significant difference in happiness score between male and female employees in private sector, results showed that public sector male employees were significantly happier than their female counterparts. No significant difference in happiness was reported across age groups or management levels within each sector. This study is expected to provide a case for designing targeted employee welfare and well-being programs based on workforce structure.