New IJF now accepts submissions exclusively via the Editorial Scholar portal — a dedicated submission & review system.
Go to Editorial Scholar →
Associated Management Consultants Pvt. Ltd. | COPE Member
Scopus Q2 UGC-CARE |
Indian Journal of Finance logo

Indian Journal of Finance

ISSN: 0973-8711 Frequency: Monthly Peer Review: Double-blind Published since: 2007 Language: English
A publication of AMCPL
amcon.co.in
New Delhi, India
Indexed in: Scopus Q2 UGC-CARE Group II Google Scholar J-Gate NISCAIR Crossref

Original Article

Open Access Original Article

Happiness Accounting : It's Time to Add Happiness to What We Measure

Rajesh K. Pillania1

1 Professor, Management Development Institute (MDI), Mehrauli Road, Sukhrali, Gurgaon - 122 007

Volume 15
Issue 3
Pages 42–49
Year 2021
Received: June 18, 2020 Accepted: Dec. 20, 2020 Published: March 31, 2021
Abstract

There is a lot of research establishing the need and impact of happiness in the workplace. However, the current accounting system developed a long time ago doesn't include the measurement of happiness. This paper's contribution and uniqueness are that it identified this significant research gap of the lack of inclusion of happiness in the accounting and other measurement systems and established a case for including happiness in the measurement system. The key takeaway is that happiness matters for the corporates as happiness impacts performance, it is about good corporate citizenship, and it is possible to measure happiness. Corporates need to include happiness in the accounting and other performance measurement systems. The implication is to take happiness more seriously as it impacts performance, helps in brand building and reputation, and also is the right thing to do as a good corporate practitioner. More research is needed for creating accounting solutions and systems for including happiness in accounting. Also, there is an urgent need to create a consensus among accounting and measurement professionals on including happiness in the measurement systems. There is a need for lobbying to include happiness in the performance measurement systems and create happiness accounting for firms around the world.

Keywords Happiness Accounting Performance Systems Corporate Citizenship. JEL
How to Cite

Rajesh K. Pillania (2021). Happiness Accounting : It's Time to Add Happiness to What We Measure. Indian Journal of Finance, 15(3), 42–49. https://doi.org/10.17010/ijf/2021/v15i3/158128

References
  1. Abdallah, S., Thompson, S., Michaelson, J., Marks, N., & Steuer, N. (2009). The Happy Planet Index 2.0 : Why good lives don’t have to cost the Earth. The New Economics Foundation. http://www.neweconomics.org/page/-/files/The_Happy_Planet_Index.pdf
  2. Bellet, C., De Neve, J. - E., & Ward, G. (2020). Does employee happiness have an impact on productivity ? (CEP Discussion Papers). Centre for Economic Performance, LSE, London, UK. http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/103428/
  3. Budhedeo, S. H., Pandya, N., & Pandya, N. (2020). Liquidity and business performance : A study of selected Indian banks. Indian Journal of Finance, 14 (5–7), 7–17. https://doi.org/10.17010/ijf/2020/v14i5-7/153321
  4. Cheung, F., & Lucas, R. E. (2014). Assessing the validity of single-item life satisfaction measures : Results from three large samples. Quality of Life Research, 23(10), 2809–2818. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-014-0726-4
  5. Cropanzano, R. S., & Wright, T. A. (2001). When a ‘happy’ worker is really a ‘productive’ worker : A review and further refinements of the happy-productive worker thesis. Consulting Psychology Journal : Practice and Research, 53(3), 182–199. https://doi.org/10.1037/1061-4087.53.3.182
  6. Davison, J. (2004). Sacred vestiges in financial reporting : Mythical readings guided by Mircea Eliade. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 17(3), 476–497. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513570410545821
  7. Des Jardins, J. (2007). Business, ethics and the environment : Imagining a sustainable future. Pearson.
  8. Di Fabio, A., & Palazzeschi, L. (2015). Hedonic and eudaimonic well-being : The role of resilience beyond fluid intelligence and personality traits. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1367. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01367
  9. Diener, E., Ng, W., Harter, J., & Arora, R. (2010a.). Wealth and happiness across the world: Material prosperity predicts life evaluation, whereas psychosocial prosperity predicts positive feeling. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(1), 52. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018066
  10. Diener, E., Wirtz, D., Tov, W., Kim-Prieto, C., Choi, D. W., Oishi, S., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2010b.). New well-being measures : Short scales to assess flourishing and positive and negative feelings. Social Indicators Research, 97(2), 143–156. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-009-9493-y
  11. Dillard, J. (2009). Buddhist economics : A path from an amoral accounting toward a moral one. In, K. Saravanamuthu & C. R. Lehman (Eds.) Extending Schumacher's concept of total accounting and accountability into the 21st century (Advances in Public Interest Accounting, Vol. 14, pp. 25–53). Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Bingley. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1041-7060(2009)0000014006
  12. Evans, L. (2004). Language, translation and the problem of international accounting communication. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 17(2), 210–248. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513570410532438
  13. Fisher, C. D. (2010). Happiness at work. International Journal of Management Reviews, 12(4), 384–412. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2009.00270.x
  14. Fisher, C. D. (2014). Conceptualising and measuring well-being at work. In P. Y. Chen & C. L. Cooper (Eds.), Work and well-being (pp. 9–33). Wiley-Blackwell.
  15. Gilbert, D. (2012). The science behind the smile. Interview by Gardiner Morse. Harvard Business Review, 90(1–2), 84–152.
  16. Gupta, P., & Jaiswal, K. K. (2020). Analysis of financial performance of selected public and private sector banks. Indian Journal of Finance, 14(1), 45–57. https://doi.org/10.17010/ijf/2020/v14i1/149856
  17. Handlin, O., & Handlin, M. F. (1945). Origins of the American business corporation. The Journal of Economic History, 5(1), 1–23. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2113160
  18. Hosie, P., Willemyns, M., & Sevastos, P. (2012). The impact of happiness on managers' contextual and task performance. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 50(3), 268–287. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7941.2012.00029.x
  19. Lamberton, G. (2015). Accounting and happiness. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 29, 16–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2014.10.005
  20. Layard, R. (2011). Happiness: Lessons from a new science. Penguin UK.
  21. Likierman, A. (2009). The five traps of performance measurement. Harvard Business Review, 87(10), 96–101.
  22. Lyubomirsky, S., & Lepper, H. S. (1999). A measure of subjective happiness : Preliminary reliability and construct validation. Social Indicators Research, 46(2), 137–155. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006824100041
  23. McKee, A. (2014). Being happy at work matters. Harvard Business Review, 14. http://hbr.org/2014/11//being-happyat work-matters
  24. Musikanski, L., Cloutier, S., Bejarano, E., Briggs, D., Colbert, J., Strasser, G., & Russell, S. (2017). Happiness index methodology. Journal of Social Change, 9(1), 4–31. https://doi.org/10.5590/JOSC.2017.09.1.02
  25. Oswald, A. J., Proto, E., & Sgroi, D. (2015). Happiness and productivity. Journal of Labor Economics, 33(4), 789–822. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/681096
  26. Pillania, R. K. (2020). India Happiness Report 2020, Gurugram. http://pillania.org/india-happiness-report-2020/
  27. Pirson, M. A., & Lawrence, P. R. (2010). Humanism in business–Towards a paradigm shift ? Journal of Business Ethics, 93(4), 553–565. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0239-1
  28. Ramirez-Garcia, C., De Perea, J. G. - Á., & Garcia-Del Junco, J. (2019). Happiness at work : Measurement scale validation. Revista de Administração de Empresas, 59(5), 327–340. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0034-759020190503
  29. Richard, P. J., Devinney, T. M., Yip, G. S., & Johnson, G. (2009). Measuring organisational performance : Towards methodological best practice. Journal of Management, 35(3), 718–804. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206308330560
  30. Suh, E., & Koo, J. (2008). Comparing subjective well-being across cultures and nations. What and why questions. In M. Eid, & R. Larsen (Eds.), The science of subjective well-being (pp. 414–427). The Guilford Press.
  31. Turban, S., Wu, D., & Zhang, L. (2019). When gender diversity makes firms more productive. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2019/02/research-when-gender-diversity-makes-firms-more-productive
  32. Ura, K., Alkire, S., Zangmo, T., & Wangdi, K. (2012, May). An extensive analysis of GNH index. Centre for Bhutan Studies. http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com/wpcontent/uploads/2012/10/An%20Extensive%20Analysis%20of%20GNH%20Index.pdf
  33. Van der Stede, W. A., Chow, C. W., & Lin, T. W. (2006). Strategy, choice of performance measures, and performance. Behavioral Research in Accounting, 18(1), 185–205. https://doi.org/10.2308/bria.2006.18.1.185
  34. Van Looy, A., & Shafagatova, A. (2016). Business process performance measurement : A structured literature review of indicators, measures and metrics. SpringerPlus, 5, 1797. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40064-016-3498-1
  35. Weimann, J., Knabe, A., & Schob, R. (2015). Measuring happiness : The economics of well-being. MIT Press.
  36. Weiss H. M., & Cropanzano, R. (1996). Affective events theory : A theoretical discussion of the structure, causes and consequences of affective experiences at work. In B. M. Staw & L. L. Cummings (Eds.), Research in organisational behavior : An annual series of analytical essays and critical reviews (pp. 1–74). JAI Press, Inc.
Editorial Scholar

Submit your Research to IJF

Submit your Manuscript → Author Guidelines