Mediating role of workplace happiness in enhancing work engagement

Purpose – This research seeks to explain the mediating function of workplace happiness in enhancing employee engagement through the drivers of employee engagement among the IT sector employees of India. Design/methodology/approach – Quantitative data were acquired from 104 respondents from the Indian IT industry via an online survey utilizing Google Forms, employing a stratified random sample method. The study hypotheses were tested using PLS-SEM. Findings – Results indicated that workplace happiness positively mediate employee engagement and drivers of employee engagement. Research limitations/implications – The current study followed a cross section analysis where establishing causality is difficult however there is a scope to do longitudinal study on the same phenomenon. Research data are produced through online surveys. Possible sources of bias may be selective memory, attribution and/or exaggeration. This study covers specific variables of workplace happiness and drivers of employee engagement other variables remains unaddressed, such as COVID-19-related impacts. The nature of the industry and sample size was limited. Practicalimplications – Thisstudyshowsthatworkplace happinesshas amediatingeffect onbothdrivers of employee engagement and employee engagement; as a result, organizations should consider the function of workplacehappinessasamediatingfactorwhenimplementingdriversofemployeeengagementandemployeeengagement. Social implications – On the social level, this research will help organizations to understand the drivers for employee engagement and linkages between workplace happiness and employee engagement. It hopes to create more happy workplaces and have good social impact.


Introduction
Happiness has been argued as to be a highly cherished aim in human communities, and people desire to be happy (Diener, 2000). Happiness is a basic human emotion, and most people are content to some degree most of the time (Diener and Diener, 1996). Happiness has piqued philosophers' interest since the dawn of written history (McMahon, 2006), but it has only recently become a subject of psychological research.
Despite the recently increasing attention, the topic of employee well-being has been largely disregarded in management literature (Erdogan et al., 2012). Empirical studies on workplace happiness are still at dearth as several studies are commonly related to only job satisfaction, and most studies do not clearly show how workplace happiness influences employee engagement levels and majority of these studies are from the western literature. Despite the fact that people spend much of their time at work (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004), past research reveals that the value of workplace happiness in the modern organizations has been overlooked, with most practices focusing on the firm's productivity. This concentration overlooked one of man's most important characteristics: "Happiness". As a result, we feel that a key research gap is the lack of attention paid to employee happiness.
This study aims to investigate the factors that influence workplace happiness and employee engagement, as well as the relationship between workplace happiness, drivers of employee engagement and employee engagement while considering workplace happiness as a mediating factor. Based on the findings of this research, a survey will be conducted on a larger sample in order to validate a theoretical model and generalize the findings. The findings of the study show that when an organization applies workplace happiness strategies, it will see a significant increase in employee engagement.

Literature review
While happiness has long been recognized as an important component of a person's life, few individuals have addressed workplace happiness as a factor in employee engagement, according to Albrecht (2010). This assertion underlies the study's significance, since it reveals how employee happiness has long been disregarded in the workplace. Gulyani and Sharma (2018), in their research study, analyzed the relationship concerning "total rewards perceptions and work happiness" and the effects of total reward components on employee happiness. The study's findings demonstrated that how employees feel about their overall incentives has a big impact on how engaged and happy they are at work. The study's key finding, in the researcher's opinion, is that financial incentives had a little effect on workers' job satisfaction. An organization can learn a valuable lesson about the importance of rewards in promoting employee engagement. Increased job engagement served as the sole mediator in the correlation between perceived aggregate compensation and "work happiness", which was closely related to workplace happiness. The study offers crucial recommendations for creating a rewards scheme that boosts worker efficiency and productivity in the developing firms' unstructured work environments. Singh et al. (2018) investigated the relationships between organizational virtue and job performance metrics, in their study article. Their cross-sectional investigations demonstrated a favorable correlation between organizational virtuousness and task performance, labor intensity, engagement and organizational citizenship behaviors. The purpose of the study was to look into the specific roles that forgiveness, kindness and collective gratitude play in fostering positive employee outcomes. The study's findings demonstrated that work engagement is predicted by employees' perceptions of organizational virtue both directly and indirectly through happiness. Stakeholders and managers can foster organizational virtue in businesses to raise employee satisfaction and encourage a more active workforce.
Researchers Syaa and Hidayatb (2018) looked at how work engagement is impacted by perceived organizational virtue. The researchers' hypothesis, which is based on the social identity theory, is that organizational identification mediates the link between perceived organizational virtue and work engagement. The findings indicate that work engagement, organizational identity and organizational identification were strongly influenced by perceived organizational virtue. Through the study, researchers established that organizational identity fully mediated the association between perceived organizational virtue and work engagement. These results are consistent with the social identity theory, which holds that organizational identity mediates the link between perceived organizational virtue and job satisfaction. Through organizational identification, a good culture may be created that can be used to increase employee engagement.
In light of COVID-19, Mehta (2021) investigated how working from home affects employee happiness and engagement. According to the findings, exogenous factors like more diversity was predicted by WFH (work from home) freedom, WFH comfort and WFH social and psychological safety than endogenous constructs like WFH work engagement. The study's findings, which support past studies, show that work engagement is significantly impacted by autonomy. The study's findings show that people who work remotely, in this example from home, feel a sense of autonomy in their work, and that perception of work engagement is significantly impacted by independence. In order to understand how people feel about themselves, their families and themselves when working from home during COVID-19, the study also examined how people's perceptions of psychosocial safety are shaped. According to the study, WFH work involvement during COVID-19 significantly affects employee satisfaction. The path coefficient between WFH work engagement and psychological safety points to a strong correlation between the two.
Chanana (2020) the goal of the essay is to assess how various companies involved their workforces throughout the coronavirus pandemic. The document provides a summary of various employee engagement strategies. The authors came to the conclusion that these forms of employee engagement techniques boost employee morale and help them feel motivated and loyal to the company during the pandemic situation brought on by the coronavirus.
There appears to be widespread consensus that happy employees are more productive employees. Diener et al. (2008).
In their book "Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements", Rath et al. (2010) claim that for most people professional wellbeing is the most significant of the five elements, which include career, social, financial, physical and community wellbeing.
According to Csikszentmihalyi and Seligman (2000), positive psychology promotes robust psychological health over stress, mental illness and suffering.
According to Halvorsen (2005), a good or happy employee can deliver amazing achievements, whereas marginal employees tend to hinder the creative and advancement process by dragging out their responsibilities.
Employee engagement, fatigue and happiness in the Indian IT Sector by Indhira and Shani (2014) evaluated the primary factors promoting or inhibiting employee engagement, fatigue, and happiness in ITES personnel. According to the author, the concept of full engagement may offer a practically helpful strategy for enhancing organizational success by integrating employee engagement and psychological well-being. According to studies, both variables have a positive impact on organizational outcomes, and it is theoretically possible that their combined impact is bigger than the effects of the individual variables. This perspective is supported by some preliminary research findings, which demonstrate that the inclusion of psychological well-being, which includes happiness and exhaustion, strengthens the associations between engagement and favorable results. The idea that psychological health is crucial for creating long-term levels of employee engagement also seems to line up with theoretical predictions and prior research findings.
Workplace happiness and employee engagement are seen to be cyclical, with a rise in one leading to an increase in the other. This means that businesses should make sure their employees are satisfied, as this will enhance employee engagement. Salimath and Kavitha (2015) in their research study, reflected upon the two concepts of employee engagement and organizational effectiveness, which are thought to have an impact on organizational performance. The study's aim was to identify the variables that had the greatest influence on the employees who participated in the survey on employee engagement. Finding out the degree of involvement that employees were experiencing was another goal of the study. A study found a significant link between organizational effectiveness and engagement.
Singh (2016) in her research article examined the numerous factors that influence employee engagement. The study examined numerous employee engagement studies. After reviewing a number of research studies, the author highlights the key factors which can influence employee engagement.
According to the arguments made by Lewis et al. (2012), an employee must acquire a particular degree of happiness before becoming engaged. These reasons are consistent with the study's findings, confirming that happiness is connected to engagement. Rampersad (2006) stated that by assisting employees in their development, the organizations have a better possibility of improving the employee's welfare, which leads to employee engagement.
According to Gavin and Mason (2004), workplace happiness has important implication on employee productivity; a happy employee is more productive than an unhappy one. Employee happiness, they stated, is a crucial aspect of the employee that must be maintained in order to have engaged employees.
According to Hassan and Ahmed (2011), happy employees are more engaged, whereas unhappy employees are less inclined to commit to their jobs.
Employee assistance almost always leads to greater employee performance, but more importantly, increased employee engagement, according to Ali (2018).
While studies on work-related well-being and life satisfaction may be found in publications on diverse issues many of these studies fail to analyze the nature and context of employment (Erdogan et al., 2012).
Happiness in the workplace, according to Hsieh (2010), has the capacity to provide high business results while also improving the wellbeing of its people. Lyubomirsky et al. (2005).
According to the existing research, workplace happiness is a necessity for engaged employees, and employee engagement comes before workplace happiness. As a result, it is vital for organizational leaders to assess their employees' worth and design strategies to attract them to stay. Employee happiness should come first before engaging them, according to the appropriate drivers of employee engagement.

Theoretical framework 3.1 Workplace happiness
We have been studying a variety of factors that appear to come under the umbrella concept of happiness for a long time. Workplace happiness, job satisfaction organizational citizenship, work engagement, positive and negative emotion, thriving and vitality are just a few of the notions that belong under the wellbeing construct (Fisher, 2010). Without a doubt, the most important and widely used of these characteristics is job satisfaction.
The importance of workplace happiness cannot be overstated Page and Vella-Brodrick (2009) and Grant et al. (2007). Many concepts in organizational behavior seem to straddle various levels of happiness. Furthermore, while some characteristics of overall workplace well-being are routinely measured and well-measured, other crucial aspects of overall workplace well-being have been completely disregarded. This shows that we have a lot of room to expand our perspectives on and assessments of workplace well-being.
Happiness and wellbeing have been characterized in different ways by philosophers . These concepts are defined in a variety of ways, both conceptually and practically, and different authors have used the same phrases in different ways. Some operationalizations and conceptualizations are well-known, while others are newer and less well-known. The primary distinction is between hedonic and eudaimonic perspectives on wellbeing.
Subjective workplace wellbeing is a concept akin to Diener's that includes satisfaction evaluations of one's life as well as moods at work. Eudaimonic wellness is especially significant in the workplace since it encompasses growth, meaningful work and absorption (Diener and Emmons, 1984).
According to Kahneman et al., we feel happy when we have more positive emotions than negative emotions, as well as the effect of previous pleasant sentiments on current state and satisfaction (2005).

Employee engagement
According to Macey and Schneider, the term "work engagement" has gained in popularity recently, yet philosophers coin it differently (2008a, b). Kahn coined the terms "personal engagement" and "psychological presence" in the workplace (1990,1992). The amount of real physical, mental and psychological self that individuals commit to their work, is referred to as "personal engagement" by Kahn. According to Schaufeli et al. (2002), work engagement is a good, fulfilling, work-related state of mind typified by vigor, dedication and immersion. Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, 2002 (UWES) is the most commonly used self-reporting questionnaire to measure it. The UWES employs three scales to assess job involvement: vigor, dedication and absorption. Vigor is described by high levels of energy and mental toughness while working. Being completely engrossed in one's work and experiencing a sense of purpose can be defined as dedication. Absorption is defined as being completely absorbed and content with one's activities, with time passing fast and separation becoming impossible. "At work, I am brimming with enthusiasm", "I find the work that I perform full of meaning and purpose", and "When I am working, I forget everything else around me" are few items from the scale.
As per, Claypool (2017) business success is predicted to be fueled by employee engagement, which has been heralded as the next big thing. This enables committed employees to ensure their efficiency at work. Happiness has been cited as one of the factors that boost employee engagement. Employee engagement and happiness are positively associated, according to the data collected.

Drivers of work engagement
Social support from coworkers, supervisors, communication and reward has all been proven to be beneficial drivers of employee engagement in previous studies. These are the factors that influence employee engagement and can help to reduce job stress Bakker, 2004, Bakker andDemerouti, 2008).

Role of work place happiness
Employees' internal and extrinsic motivations are thought to be influenced by engagement drivers. They contribute to intrinsic motivation by fostering employees' growth. In the first example, job resources address basic human needs like autonomy, connectedness and competence (Deci and Ryan, 1985;Ryan and Frederick, 1997). The intrinsic motivating potential of drivers of work engagement is recognized by job characteristics theory (Hackman, 1980).
Extrinsic motivational factors may also play a part in work engagement drivers (Meijman and Mulder, 1998). It is more likely that the task accomplished and the work goal will be achieved in such an environment.
A link between drivers of engagement and work engagement has been discovered in several research studies, reinforcing these beliefs on the motivational usefulness of drivers of engagement. Hakanen et al. (2006) discovered that task authority, knowledge, supervisory support, innovative environment were all positively linked to work engagement in a sample of roughly 2000 Finnish teachers. Llorens et al. (2006) obtained conceptually comparable results in a Spanish environment. In a group of female managers and professionals at a major Turkish bank, Koyuncu et al. (2006) explored the causes and consequences of job engagement.
3.3.1 Theoretical model. Figure 1 theoretical model diagram represents constructs of the study and their relationship. It contains independent variables (IV), dependent variables (DV), mediator variables (MED) or indirect effects, as shown in the diagram below. In this model, organizational drivers act as a predictor or independent variable, workplace happiness acts as a mediator and employee engagement acts as an outcome or dependent variable.

Objectives and hypotheses 4.1 Objectives
Objective 1. To identify the factors influencing the workplace happiness and employee engagement.
Objective 2. To study the relationship of workplace happiness and employee engagement.
Objective 3. To examine workplace happiness as a mediator between drivers of employee engagement and employee engagement.

Hypotheses
H1. There is an insignificant relationship between workplace happiness and employee engagement.
H2. Workplace happiness does not enact as a mediator between drivers of employee engagement and employee engagement.

Research methodology
To test the link between exogenous (independent) and endogenous (dependent) variables, we used the Smart PLS V 3.2.7 software program.

Data collection 5.3.1 Instrument used in the study.
A thorough investigation of the literature review reveals the numerous scales that have been used to conduct research on the variables mentioned. However UWES (Schaufeli and Bakker, 2003) is the most commonly used self-reporting questionnaire to measure work engagement. It includes items to assess the three types of engagement dimensions: vigor, devotion and absorption. According to the validity and reliability scores assigned to these studies, the internal consistency of all the constructs was demonstrated to be satisfactory. The draft instrument was sent to five researchers for face and content validity testing and three academicians from human resource management domain and two practicing executives working as HR managers in IT organizations in India). This was a fully voluntary endeavor, and the experts received no compensation for their opinion. Experts were briefed about the study's aims and the reasoning for choosing specific variables. Following the expert's advice, appropriate revisions to the draft instrument were made, and it was distributed to the targeted samples after being converted into an online questionnaire. (n 5 104). The sample size for pilot study was selected keeping in mind that, it would help in presenting target population. Data were collected from 104 respondents from an Indian IT industry. Out of the total respondents, 61.04% are male and 38.96 are female respondents, out of which 89.08% fall in the age group of 21-35. 55.83% respondents reported that they are never married and 70.47% of total sample size hold bachelor's degree; 100% respondents are working as full time employees. A total of 34.49% said they are working on team leader level and 62.78% respondents are associated with an organization for 1-3 years at the reported time. Table 1 above presents construct wise reliability and validity of the data. It can be seen that alpha is a reliability coefficient. It is a standard statistic for determining a psychometric test's internal consistency or reliability. Cronbach's alpha for most of the constructions is Role of work place happiness greater than 0.8, which is good, according to the above table. The test result confirmed that the instrument is consistent and that the data are accurate. Figure 2 presents construct wise correlation matrix. As per the analysis of the above correlation table, dimensions are correlated and statistically significant at least 5% level.

Data analysis 5.4.1 Demographics of the sample respondents
5.4.2 Partial least square structural equation (PLS-SEM) model. PLS-SEM is one of the foremost statistical techniques that gives researchers the ability to observe variables and their relationships (Hair et al., 2017). The reason for using PLS-SEM technique is that it converges factor analysis and multiple regression and allows the researcher to benefit from using small sample sizes and generally gaining higher levels of statistical power even in case of complex models. Table 2 below presents assessment of outer loadings. Outer loadings of all indicators exceed the cross-loadings, thereby fulfilling the criteria for establishing discriminant validity.
Above tables, Table 3 and 4 presented the discriminant validity of the data set; it shows that this study's discriminant validity is established by meeting the stipulated criterion.
Tables 5 and 6 depicts R square and F square values, indicated the effect is statistically significant.
Above Figure 3 presents path co-efficient of the study variables.
The study used 2,000 bootstrap subsamples and derived t-values. The route coefficients of the direct effects for variable relationships are shown in Table 7 below.

Role of work place happiness
H1a. There is a significant relationship between workplace happiness and employee engagement.
H2a. Workplace happiness enacts as a mediator between drivers of employee engagement and employee engagement.

Findings.
(1) Study identified the key factors which can influence workplace happiness and employee engagement. Intrinsic motivation, work engagement, supportive organizational experiences and unsupportive organizational experiences can have significant influence on workplace happiness. Vigor, dedication and absorption can significantly impact employee engagement. (2) There is a significant relationship between workplace happiness and employee engagement.
(3) Study result shows that there is a positive relationship between drivers of employee engagement and workplace happiness.
(4) Drivers of Employee Engagement lead to employee engagement.
(5) Workplace happiness enacts as mediator between drivers of employee engagement and employee engagement.
Practical implication: This study shows that workplace happiness has a mediating effect on both drivers of employee engagement and employee engagement; as a result, organizations   (1) Current study followed cross section analysis where establishing causality is difficult; however, there is a scope to do longitudinal study on the same phenomenon.
(2) Research data are produced through the online surveys. Possible sources of bias may be selective memory, attribution and/or exaggeration.
(3) This study covers specific variables of workplace happiness and drivers of employee engagement other variables remains unaddressed, such as COVID-19 related impacts: (4) The nature of industry and sample size was limited.

Recommendations for future research.
(1) Future research should focus on other HR factors to have a better understanding of this construct.
(2) Despite recently increasing attention, empirical studies on well-being at work are still lacking (Erdogan et al., 2012).
(3) Therefore there is a scope to develop a single instrument to assess all of these components.
(4) Social wellbeing at work has wide scope of research. (5) With rare exceptions, happiness is not a term that has been extensively used in academic research.
(6) Finally, longitudinal research is proposed across organizations to examine workplace happiness interventions for promoting employee engagement.

Conclusions
According to the findings, there is a considerable link in workplace happiness and employee engagement, and it works as a mediator between employee engagement drivers and employee engagement. It can also significantly contribute to the literature on workplace happiness and employee engagement by establishing the relationship of drivers of employee engagement and workplace happiness and employee engagement, demonstrating that while employee engagement is important to the organization, whether or not an employee becomes engaged is determined by workplace happiness. The establishment of a positive relationship between these three factors suggests that an organization will reap significant benefits when it implements drivers of employee engagement alongside workplace happiness practices to boost employee engagement, resulting in more engaged employees and faster growth.