Well-Being, Happiness and Interpersonal Relationship as Correlated Components of Job Satisfaction among the Public Sector Employees of India: A Brief Detail Focused into Gender Difference

Abstract

Positive psychology began as new area of psychology in 1998 when Martin Seligman chose it as the theme for his term as president of the American Psychological Association, though the term originates with Maslow, in his 1954 book Motivation and Personality. Positive psychology is the study of happiness. Psychology has traditionally focused on dysfunction people with mental illness or other psychological problems and how to treat it. Positive psychology, in contrast, is relatively new field that examines how ordinary people can become happier and more fulfilled. Subjective well-being (SWB) refers to how people experience the quality of their lives and includes both emotional reactions and cognitive judgments. Psychologists have defined happiness as combination of life satisfaction and the relative frequency of positive and negative affect. Subjective well-being (SWB) is defined as 'a person's cognitive and affective evaluations of his or her life' (Diener, Lucas, & Oshi, 2002, p. 63). The cognitive element refers to what one thinks about his or her life satisfaction in global terms (life as whole) and in domain terms (in specific areas of life such as work, relationships, etc.) The affective element refers to emotions, moods and feelings. Affect is considered positive when the emotions, moods and feelings experienced are pleasant (e.g., joy, elation, affection etc.). Affect is deemed negative, though, when the emotions, moods and feelings experienced are unpleasant (e.g., guilt, anger, shame etc.). Happiness has been topic of interest for many centuries, starting with Ancient Greek philosophy, post-Enlightenment Westem-European moral philosophy (especially Utilitarianism) to current quality-of-life and well-being research in social, political and economic sciences. Nowadays, happiness as concept seems to be readily embraced by the majority of people and appears to be more valued than the pursuit of money, moral goodness or going to heaven. Not surprisingly, during the past thirty years and especially since the creation of positive psychology, psychology too has turned its attention towards the study of happiness and well-being. Happiness is slippery concept. Sometimes it seems to us like the Holy Grail: mythical, wonderful, but probably unobtainable. But Positive Psychology suggests that happiness is more than obtainable. It is the natural result of building up our well-being and satisfaction with life.According to positive psychology, the sense of well being is kind of positive experience an individual feels after making comprehensive evaluation on the quality of life and hence several related psychosocial correlates such as happiness, coping, interpersonalrelationhelpsto growthe feelingofpositivemind.In the context of organizational behaviour, the recent scenario focuses into the effectiveness of the relationship between the aspects of positive psychology and work satisfaction of the employees. Job satisfaction represents one of the most complex areas facing today's managers when it comes to managing their employees. Many studies have demonstrated an unusually large impact on the job satisfaction on the motivation of workers, while the level of motivation has an impact on productivity, and hence also on performance of business organizations. Unfortunately, in our region, job satisfaction has not still received the proper attention from neither scholars nor managers of various business organizations. The concept ofjob satisfaction has been developed in many ways by many different researchers and practitioners. One of the most widely used definitions in organizational research is that of Locke (1976), who defines job satisfaction as a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one'sjob or job experiences (p. 1304) (Locke,1976). Others have defined it as simply how content an individual is with his orherjob; whether he or she likes the job or not (Spector, 1997). …