Modifying the Abridged Version of the Gross National Happiness Index Survey to Suit the Singapore Hospitality Industry

Abstract

Bhutan as a tourist destination intrigues many in the most part due to its very unique way of measuring its nation’s success. While most countries in the world monitor their respective gross domestic products (GDPs) as the indicator of economic standing, for five decades the Bhutanese government and its people have maintained a different mindset. And they are firm and very proud of it. The Gross National Happiness (GNH) index was first conceptualised in Bhutan in the 70’s. It is a measure of overall wellbeing and perceived by its advocates as the better success indicator of a country. Thanks to the inspiration of His Majesty the third Druk Gyalpo Jigme Dorji Wangchuck who addressed the United Nations in 1971, Bhutan ever since remained steadfast in the concept of GNH (Tourism Council of Bhutan, n.d.) [1]. This research is the first of its kind in Singapore. It is an attempt to apply the GNH index not to a country but to an industry, the hospitality industry in Singapore. It is a common observance in hotels and restaurants in many countries that staff experience stress and pressure. O’Neill and Davis (2011) [2] argued that employee stress is a major issue in the hospitality industry and claimed that it is costly to both employees and employers. As such, many find working in the hospitality field to be far from a walk in the park, so to speak. Veenhoven (2004) [3] pointed out “happiness” as interchangeable to “quality of life”. It is worthwhile therefore to explore the effects of this highly challenging environment to the happiness and wellbeing of those who work there. Would this have impact on employee turnover and labour participation in this industry? This is a good question to answer in future studies. Thus, investigating the current condition of the industry particularly in a fast-paced work milieu like Singapore could trace the possible root causes of the manpower crunch being experienced at the time of this writing. The researcher examined the abridged version of the GNH (The Gross National Happiness Abridged Survey, 2011) [4]. The objectives pursued in this investigation were: assess the suitability of the abridged GNH version in Singapore’s hospitality industry, examine the possible amendments or changes that need to be done on the abridged GNH version to suit Singapore’s hospitality sector, justify the changes on the abridged GNH version to suit Singapore’s hospitality industry, and create the adapted version of the abridged GNH index suitable to Singapore’s hospitality industry. As hypothesized, there are a significant number of changes that were needed to be done in the original abridged GNH version. Amendments were done that resulted in an adapted and modified version of the original abridged form. This modified abridged GNH version has been justified in this paper to be suitable for further studies to measure the happiness of workers in Singapore’s hospitality industry (coined here as the GAS-SHI for Gross National Happiness Abridged Survey for the Singapore Hospitality Industry). The GAS-SHI could be used by policy makers in hospitality organisations and the Singapore government to measure and possibly improve hospitality worker’s wellbeing.