Measuring Employee Happiness in the UAE – Integrating Organisational Data into the National Statistics

Measuring happiness is a complicated process as the concept of happiness cannot be universally defined, collectively experienced or scientifically measured. Further, the lag between when happiness is experienced and when a happiness research report is produced makes intervention efforts ineffective and occasionally redundant. In the current literature, confusions exist in terms of definitions of happiness, well-being and whether gross domestic product is an accurate measure of a nation’s development. Within the organisational context however, little research is carried out on happiness leading whilst at the practical level, some nations including the United Arab Emirates and Bhutan, are currently promoting several happiness initiatives in order to become a happier nation and, perhaps, influence the country’s productivity. We have proposed a simple data collection approach at the organisational level that will collect daily happiness data per each employee. The micro data collection process is different from the big data normally gathered by the state departments in the sense that it is timely, captures the individualized account of happiness which, we recommend, should be correlated with organisational productivity and fed into the overall national statistics on gross national product and public well-being.


INTRODUCTION
Despite our desire to achieve happiness at all levels of society, and recently within organisations, happiness has been misdefined, misapplied and often confused with other concepts at both the global level and at the organisational level. Although various dictionary definitions exist (Table 1), within the organisational context, happiness has been embedded in and inadvertently measured within other management framework such as, motivation (Bassett-Jones and Lloyd, 2005;Burdbar and Nisar, 2012), job satisfaction (Baddah, 2016;Salas-Vallina et al., 2017), and employee engagement (Attridge, 2009;Kumar and Pansari, 2015;Rahman et al., 2017). A crucial central point to gauge employee happiness is the perception of the individual reporting the level of their happiness as the phenomenon of happiness is almost impossible to generalise scientifically. In many cases, the level of happiness and the factors leading to the individual's state of happiness can vary greatly across different cultures and organisational climate, context and the individual's disposition towards happiness. Whilst we all desire a high level of happiness, the measurement of the concept has proven elusive as scholars fail to agree on a single definition or measurement. To make progress in the study of happiness, therefore, requires first and foremost, an understanding of happiness and how it can be measured correctly by organisations and the UAE government. In this research, an attempt is made to understand what happiness is, how it is measured currently and how it should be measured by organisational leaders. The UAE's vision to be the happiest country in the world is possible when organisational happiness is measured correctly. The data collected at the micro level, once integrated and aligned with the macro measurement of National Happiness will help in the efforts made by the UAE This Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License to surpass other countries that have been leading the happiness index for years.
To guide managerial decision making, we provide recommendations regarding how data should be collected in order to measure levels of happiness in the organisation. Whilst this data can be used in a national survey of happiness, we also recommend that the data on happiness be correlated with productivity so as to give fuller meaning to any happiness initiative; after all, a happy nation that is not productive cannot be sustainable in the long run.

Definitions of Happiness
Although a vague term and almost impossible to fully comprehend, lexicographers have agreed on common features that guide our understanding of the concept of happiness - Table 1. The Meriam-Webster Dictionary for example, defines happiness in two ways; "a state of well-being and contentment" or "a pleasurable or satisfying experience." The concept of well-being seems quite a broad construct and may cover several factors in and outside of the organisational landscape, whilst contentment may be seen as a static concept relating to the individual's satisfaction. Within the context of this research, all the definitions provided by the various Dictionaries may be questionable as they refer to "pleasure" which is not often consistent with the organisational view of a happy workforce. Pleasure may derive from non-work related activities or experiences that may not be managed by external forces, for example, managers. Individual satisfaction, on the other hand, can be a valid way to frame the concept of happiness (Horwitz, 2017;Solansky et al., 2014) -for example we can ask people to report on their level of satisfaction which can relate directly to their level of happiness about a particular work activity or method or managerial decision. Earlier attempts to define happiness in terms of wealth or level income have been debunked by studies carried out about a decade ago by Di Tella and MacCulloch, (2006). According to Di Tella and MacCulloch, (2006), if it was possible to measure happiness by watching what people do (an economics perspective) rather than measuring what people say, the concept of happiness would be much better understood and perhaps, defined. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to define the term from management perspective thereby leaving us to resort to definitions provided in lexicons, as such definitions are better suited to providing meaning to employees' experience of happiness.

Existing Theories of "Happiness"
As a concept in work studies, happiness itself has not been explored or promoted independently as an antecedent of performance although nationally, the concept has received somewhat extensive interest, particularly in the works of Veenhoven (2000;. Scholarly work in the field of "organisational happiness" has focused on terms other than "happiness" for nearly a century (Maslow, 1954;Herzberg, 1959 andMcLelland, 1984) suggesting that the concept of happiness has either been taken for granted or has not fully been accepted as a core part of organisational theory, (Okulicz-Kozaryn, 2016). A year ago, (Okulicz-Kozaryn, 2016) noted that a search for the word "happiness" in two leading journals in public policy and administration, Public Administration Review (PAR) and Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (JPAM), returns zero results although several activists, and in fact economist, are eagerly pushing for institutions to accept and promote the concept of happiness. This lacuna might suggest that previous studies were actually exploring the same concept of happiness although their approach and concepts may look different; we are tempted to ask the question, is the overall goal of motivating, satisfying, and well-being, after all, about happiness?
The various elements of content theories of motivation lead to a common goal -what motivates workers? Similarly, the purpose of process theories which looks at how employees can be motivated has formed the core of the works of Adam (1965) and Vroom (1964) who both worked in the 60's hoping to find a panacea to organisational motivation. Whilst the aim of this paper is not to chronicle a list of motivation theories, it is worth noting that the attempts made to understand what exactly makes employees "happy" cannot be separated from the scholarly work in the field of motivation and job satisfaction. It is therefore erroneous to promote national or international happiness initiatives without starting from the micro level -in this case, the institutions of society including, "for profit" and "not for profit" organisations.
If we now turn to the other academic constructs that are formulated and often correlated with performance, the list is almost unending despite the majority of them being difficult to measure. For example, employee engagement has extensively being investigated (Anitha, 2014;Fisher, 2010;Jiao et al., 2011;Mangai and De Vries, 2018) although its measure is still controversial; loyalty and commitment (Dong and Liu, 2010;Imm Ng et al., 2007;Jassawalla et al., 2004) may have implications for happiness yet we are not able to formulate a clear measurement tool for them. Perhaps we can argue that, most constructs that have a psycho-social dimension are very difficult to measure and happiness is just one of them as its experience and expression varies from person to person.

Global Models of Happiness and their Weaknesses
For nearly half a century, Bhutan has been applying Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index to measure country's growth and development (Parackal, 2016;Sithey et al., 2015) and denounced the global measures like Gross National Product (GNP) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the King of Bhutan and the ignitor of GNH, argues in 1972 that measures like GNP and GDP do not measure the social well-being. Elaborating further, Dixon (2006) pointed out that GNP does not account for services provided to "enhance social well-being, degradation of critical assets, and intangible factors, such as happiness" (p. 15). While analysing the GNH Index; Ura et al. (2012) found that Bhutan has based GNH on five core values depicting a holistic, balanced, collective, sustainable, and equitable nation. The happiness measurement is embedded in the constitution and legal code of the government, which rests on the premise that the very existence of the government is to "create happiness (dekidk) for its people" (Ura et al., 2012).
The GNP concept, developed in 1937, is an outcome of the Great Depression in the (Breene, 2016). Though instrumental in measuring the economic growth for past 80 years, is now considered as a tool with limitations by the United Nations (United Nations, 2013). Simon Kuznet, the creator of modern GNP, cautioned nations to not apply this tool to measure the nation's welfare and not to consider GNP as a sole instrument to measure nation's growth (Galbraith and Kum, 2003;Morrisson and Murtin, 2013;Sulkowski and White, 2016). All countries have been measuring their economic growth through GNP and GDP and organisations have been analysing balance sheets and returns on share capital for many decades but could not avoid the global recession in 2008, global warming, high crime rates, and associated problems and miseries that could have been foreseen. Although a difficult task, incorporating happiness into the organisational success framework would have been a reasonable approach to determining what actually makes an organisation prosperous.
Currently, the governments of eastern, as well as western nations are embracing the measurement of social well-being (in form of happiness) and catching up with Bhutan's philosophy and practice of implementing GNH Index. Dixon (2006) proposed that countries include intangible measures associated with happiness so that important parameters are measured and then managed more effectively. Since 2006, a number of countries have started several initiatives in an attempt to measure and manage happiness. In the west, USA created a "Key national indicator system;" French government acknowledged to bring "an end to GDP fetishism" but have performed minimally in keeping the citizens happy (Senik, 2014); and the UK government started collecting happiness surveys (Sulkowski and White, 2016). In the eastern part of the world, the United Arab Emirates evolved as a leader in the Middle East as it transformed the governance by creating Ministry of State of Happiness in 2016. Bhutan has been guiding the world to measure happiness and but could not influence its neighbour, China. Despite leading the world in terms of economic development, China exerted minimal efforts in measuring happiness and keeping people happy (Ip, 2011;Lu et al., 2001;Wei et al., 2015). In Japan, the Institute for Studies in Happiness, Economy and Society closely works with the government to enhance national happiness (ISHES, 2016).
The United Nation's (UN) announcement of 20 th March as the International Day of Happiness, in 2013, churned the national policies of several countries to include measures like GNH (United Nations, 2013). The UN's call to measure the happiness through national policies changed the nation's perspectives. In 2013, when the second World Happiness Report revealed happiness scores and ranked Denmark as the happiest nation and Tango as a least happy country out of 156 nations (Helliwell et al., 2013), the researchers and government policymakers realized the seriousness of measuring happiness. In addition to GDP per capita, the social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and perception of corruption were the explanatory factors in the happiness ranking (Helliwell et al., 2012;Helliwell et al., 2013;Helliwell et al., 2015;. Apart from the World Happiness Report, the global indicator for happiness is Happy Planet Index (HPI), that measures environmental footprint, longevity, happiness, and economic activity (Bondarchik et al., 2016;European Happy Planet Index, 2008). The HPI measures happiness by multiplying the well-being score (data from Gallup world poll); life expectancy (data from UN) and inequality of outcomes (based on well-being and life expectancy) and then divide the score by Ecological footprint (data from Global footprint network). In 2016, HPI ranked 140 countries while World happiness report ranked 157 countries. As the scope of the paper is in UAE context, authors made a conscious choice of excluding HPI ranking as UAE did not participate in it. Instead, authors chose to analyse World Happiness Reports published since 2012 due to wider coverage of countries, the inclusion of diverse factors, and most importantly "happiness in the workplace" (Helliwell et al., 2012;2015; 2016;s 2017).

United Arab Emirates's Efforts to Become the Happiest Nation in the World
"The Job of governments is to create the environment in which people can achieve their happiness. Yes, the government's job is to achieve happiness."

H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
The firm belief of the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the ruler of Dubai, laid the foundation of the Ministry of State of Happiness (hereafter, referred as the Ministry) with appointment of H. E. Sheikha Ohood bint Khalfan Al Roumi as the Minister in February 2016. The vision of the Ministry is "to be amongst the happiest countries in the world," with a clear aim to take UAE from its 21 st rank (Helliwell et al., 2017) to at least 5 th rank by 2021 (Discover Why, n.d.). Bhutan, Ecuador, and Venezuela also have appointed Ministers of Happiness (Helliwell et al., 2016). UAE's spirit of happiness and positivity is embedded in policies, procedures, regulations, and legislations of the government sector and private sector. The Ministry intends to flourish happiness and positivity in work place and measure the same. Ministry undertook certain initiatives like appointment of chief happiness officer, creating happy offices, measuring customer's happiness, dedicating couple of hours per month towards happiness and positivity, setting councils and awarding the happiness heroes (Know What, n.d.).
The outcomes of UAE's efforts to promote happiness has been reflected in improvement in its World happiness ranking from 28 th in 2016 to 21 st in 2017 (Helliwell et al., 2016;. The Federal Authority for Human Resources (FAHR) launched happiness corner in 2016 to enhance the "mental or emotional state of well-being." Aisha Al Suwaidi, the Executive Director of Human Resources Policies Sector mentioned that the happiness in workplace "can improve performance by 31%, innovation by 300%, and effectiveness by 37%" (FAHR, 2017). FAHR also launched Employee Wellness Guidance Framework to elevate the level of happiness in the Ministries and federal organisations. Embracing PERMA model (Kun et al., 2016;Lambert D'raven and Pasha-Zaidi, 2016), FAHR implemented four stage plan to increase the happiness level amongst federal government entities (FAHR, 2017). During the first phase, a "happiness at work" page was launched with electronic HR Forum, followed by introduction of a questionnaire on "a happier work environment" in 2016. Later on, futuristic workplace in the federal government was analysed and in then finally a brainstorming session was conducted to identify progressive areas. However, the initiatives of Ministry and FAHR are in their nascent stage and estimating long term impact on the gross national happiness is a challenge. Furthermore, the PERMA model may not be an ideal model to pursue happiness in UAE. The model is criticised for its individualistic origins of happiness that does not align with UAE's cultural and social structures (Lambert D'raven and Pasha-Zaidi, 2016).
In order for UAE to achieve the target of becoming the happiest country on the earth, it is quintessential for the national leaders, policy makers, and organisations to analyse its state of happiness in a global context, national context, as well as at an organisational level. Alignment of happiness policies and initiatives at all the levels would ultimately support UAE's Vision 2021. The grass root work is to be conducted by public and private organisations by promoting happiness and positivity in the work place in lines with the regulations set by FAHR and Ministry. Since UAE has been actively engaged in promoting happiness, the authors analysed the World Happiness Reports (2012 -2017) and various other reports including Gallup's State of the Global Workplace (2010; 2013; 2017) to propose suggestions to the Ministry, FAHR, and organisational leaders.
Six dimensions were identified reflecting the gap between UAE's current happiness state and its aim to be the happiest country. These dimensions are: Inclusion of all residents in the happiness drive; targeting the labour market through understanding its workforce; striking a balance between work-life; understanding the influence of salaries-inflation on happiness; reengineering the happiness goals for different generations; and revamping the nature of work.

Inclusion of all residents
According to the World Happiness reports of 2012-2017, UAE always has been ranked in top 17% of countries surveyed. In 2012, UAE was not accounted in the World happiness report, but then in 2014 UAE secured 14 th rank amongst 156 countries. However, it is to be noticed that during this period only UAE nationals and Arab expatriates were surveyed (Helliwell et al., 2013). With the inclusion of expatriates in World happiness report, 2016, the UAE rank dropped to 28 th (amongst 157 countries) depicting the inequality in the state of happiness of nationals and non-nationals. (2010) found that the expatriates, on short term work permit, tend to feel unhappy due to the remoteness from their family members, lack of connection with the community, pressure to earn more income, and job insecurity. Helliwell et al. (2012) concur to these reasons and found migrants "to be less satisfied with their life than natives, even when they share an identical socio-professional situation" (p. 70). The UAE population is dominated by expatriates (average 86%) (Al Mazrouei and Pech, 2015; The World Bank, n.d.), and hence it becomes vital for the UAE government to take measures to improve happiness of all residents, nationals and non-nationals. Though the population of UAE nationals has increased in past few decades, so does the population of expatriates. Table 2, the population of UAE nationals has increased 22.2 folds in 35 years (from 1975 to 2010) while during the same period, the population of non-nationals has increased 28.88 times (The World Bank, n.d.). The sudden drop in UAE's happiness rank due to inclusion of non-nationals indicates the necessity to revisit the happiness policies, programs, and regulations of UAE so as to accommodate the factors that would enhance the happiness of non-nationals as well. Moreover, following the Japanese "kaizen," policy makers should aim for continuous improvement in the happiness and positivity index of UAE nationals.

Workforce composition
One of the driving force of a nation is its workforce. The UAE workforce is composed of male and female, nationals and nonnations, and of various age groups. The rising trend of UAE workforce (Figure 1) is another element to be analysed in context of happiness and positivity. The total workforce in UAE in 2016 was 4.89 million ("Bayanat," n.d.) and is estimated to surpass 5.2 million by 2018. Targeting the happiness of the workforce is quintessential to improve the UAE's happiness ranking. The labour policies, labour market regulations, and social welfare are significant drivers of happiness amongst the workforce (Helliwell et al., 2012).
Labour regulations and welfare is at the epicentre of Denmark's happiness drive. Denmark has always been in the top three happiest countries (Helliwell et al., 2012;2015;  The "flexicurity" model of Denmark distinguishes it from other countries as the model provides flexible rules related to recruitment and termination and unemployment benefits. The active labour market policy of Denmark promotes the jobsecurity amongst the residents and hence increases the level of happiness (Flexicurity, n.d.).
The World happiness report of 2012 proposed governments to minimize unemployment rate and increase the sense of job security, as being unemployed is considered as a great cause of misery (Helliwell et al., 2012). Though the unemployment rate of UAE is meagre 3.66% in 2017 (The World Bank, n.d.), the job insecurity in the private sector is a concern (Abdulla et al., 2011;Al Mazrouei and Pech, 2015;Chapman et al., 2014;Schoepp, 2011), that needs to be addressed by Ministry, FAHR, and Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) to achieve UAE 2021 plan.

Work-life balance
The top five happiest countries of the world aim to strike a balance between work-life and promote family and child care. The average working hours per week in Denmark and Norway is 33 hours; and Ireland records 34 hours, and 35 hours in Switzerland (Kurtz, 2013), while UAE labour law stipulates maximum 48 hours per week for private sector (MOHRE, n.d.). The constitution of UAE protects motherhood and childhood, so does the governments of top five happiest countries. The life-satisfaction score and Better Life Index measures, as depicted in Table 3, of top four happy countries (OECD, 2017) could become a benchmark for the MOHRE and FAHR to reengineer its labour regulations.

Salaries and inflation
According to the World Happiness Report (2012), "20% respondents in OECD countries say that having a high income" and "flexible hours" is very important for happiness. Since 2010, the total wages and salaries in the UAE is on rise, indicating increase in workforce's income. (Figure 2) However, unlike evidence from Figure 2, the saving potential of individuals has decreased due to steep rise in the inflation rate ( Figure 3). Dubai secured 19 th rank in the most expensive cities of the world and the UAE capital got the 22 nd position (Mercer report, 2017). Frey, 2008; Researchers established that the inflation is directly associated with the degree of happiness (Frey, 2008;Frey and Stutzer, 2002;Tella et al., 2001). High inflation has been the causal factor for unhappiness as it reduces the saving power causing financial insecurity and reduced social welfare.
Many organisations as well as labour regulators provide cost-ofliving allowance, at times, nomenclated as COLA. According to Collins (2007), COLA is an addition to normal salary to cover increases in the cost of living. The COLA is a common compensation practice aimed at alleviating high cost faced by international employees, something that could be view as providing an indication to happiness (Hansen, 1998).  Source: Federal competitiveness and statistics authority and acknowledged that each generation is different and hence government need to take different initiatives to fulfill different needs (FAHR, 2016).

Workforce generation
The workforce age distribution (Figure 4) shows the workforce distribution by age, skewed mainly towards a young workforce compared to countries like Estonia, Germany and Japan. To Source: Federal competitiveness and statistics authority continue to achieve optimum contributions of the active labour force in the UAE, it is important to target happiness initiatives at the age group ranging from 20 years to 54years but more specifically, any initiatives targeted at the 25 to 39 year groups can achieve higher performance in the organisation.

Nature of work
In addition to the social welfare and compensation and benefits, the nature of work, autonomy, trust, and aligned values also influence the happiness index (Helliwell et al., 2012). In UAE, low skilled workers constitute the highest proportion of the workforce ( Figure 5). The workers at lower level jobs suffer from monotonous routine jobs with minimal autonomy (Anglebrandt, 2013;De Spiegelaere et al., 2014;Tsai, 2016) and experience unhappiness (Helliwell et al., 2012). As discussed earlier, the expatriate employees dominate the workforce but the diverse profile of expatriate workforce would require varied happiness initiatives adding more challenge for the Ministry, MOHRE, and FAHR.
As reported by Bel-Air (2015), in 2008 survey, 99% of expatriates were in unskilled positions. In 2009, 57.2% expatriates were employed in lower-level positions and only 28.2% were in professional/technical positions. The nature of job determines the engagement level (Albrecht and Ebrary, 2010;Attridge, 2009;Baltzley, 2016;Ibrahim and Al Falasi, 2014) and with majority of workforce allocated to lower level position deteriorates the happiness level and the engagement level. The Gallup's state of the global workplace report found that in MENA region, the 48% employees working in construction/mining (including oil refineries) are actively disengaged (Gallup, 2017). In 2017, only 16% of the workforce in MENA region was engaged (Gallup, 2017) while in 2013, 26% were engaged (Gallup, 2013). The UAE's efforts to increase the knowledge workers in the workforce may change the equation by 2021 (UAE KE, n.d.).
The 2017 Gallup Emotions Report found MENA region in lowest scores of positive experience index (Gallup, 2017a). The positive emotions relates to the feeling of being well-rested, which is directly connected to the working hours. The negative emotions are associated with worry, physical pain, sadness, stress, and anger. An independent study conducted by Baranski et al. (2017) wherein the researcher compared daily behaviour across 21 countries found that UAE has a high index of positive emotions like smiles and respect. On the other hand, it has been found that UAE people feel self-pitty or have feelings of victimization. H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum asked the UAE people to question themselves, "How do I feel today" and to ask others "How are you feeling today" to bring happiness and positivity in the country (Sheikh and Al Maktoum, n.d.).

METHODOLOGY
A systematic review was carried out on thirty-nine core journal articles and happiness reports across several repositories including

Proposed Measurement Model
In order to be a valid tool, a happiness measuring approach has to be time realistic, consistent and continuous. A measurement taken per year or biannually cannot capture the "micro" experience of happiness as the phenomenon has the tendency of varying so Source: Federal competitiveness and statistics authority rapidly, sometimes within a split of a second. To be effective, we propose a data gathering process that collects micro information about the employee's level of happiness twice within a working day. Ideally, the data should be collected at the start of a working day, and also when the employee sings out of work.

Happiness Data Collection Recommended Approach
• Introduce a happiness data collection tool • The data collection tool can be installed at the organisation's entrance or desktop • Ideally, employees can tap on an icon representing their level of happiness • Happiness is measured in four dimensions • Each dimension is given a weighting descriptor in line with the four dimensions • Data is automatically collected at the end of each week and reported back to the workforce • The weekly data is then compounded to form the annual happiness index • The aggregate per organisation will then be fed into the national happiness index.

Correlating Happiness Data with Organisational Productivity
This section discusses the importance of why happiness needs to be looked at alongside productivity. The assumption is that, happiness measurements that are not linked with productivity are potentially incomplete and productivity measures that exclude happiness as a key dependent variable are weak and typically redundant. Ideally, after collating the organisational data on happiness, this data needs to be compared with trends in productivity over the period under review. Conjecturally, higher levels of happiness, all other things being equal, should result in higher levels of productivity ( Figure 6).
Low levels of happiness are correlated with low levels of productivity whilst higher levels of happiness positively correlate with higher levels of productivity.
At P1, productivity is still positive although happiness level is zero. This phenomenon is consistent with what Mullins (2010. p. 10) describes as instrumental orientation to work-employees define work in terms of means to an end rather than something they are happy doing. P2 correlates with H2, indicating a positive relationship between happiness and productivity whilst P3 and H3 although positively related, productivity tends to flatten after reaching a maximum as roles become routine. It is at this point that managers have to intervene, providing initiatives that reignite happiness if productivity is expected to continue rising.

CONCLUSION
We wanted to find out if there are any other ways to collect happiness data and whether such data can provide any meaningful patterns in the productivity of organisations and national statistics. By reviewsing a set of international reports ranging from 2000 to 2016 we have established that current happiness measures have a number of gaps including the fact that they are normally not correlated with productivity indicators.
As a result of the existing inconsistencies, a data collection method has been proposed to help managers gather accurate, timely and continuous data on happiness and compare such data with individual productivity. By following this method, a link can be established between these two important and often talked about activities of organisations and countries. By piloting the above recommended data collection approach in the UAE, the country can continue to make exponential gains in its happiness ranking.