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Introduction
The scientific concept of wellness is achieving particular relevance since the World Health Organization (WHO, 1946) defined health, not just through physical medical parameters, but, in a broader way, including the bio-psychosocial well-being perspective. The happiness concept benefits from this perspective. The concepts of well-being and happiness have been used interchangeably (Blanch et al., 2010; Warr, 2013; Ong and Lin, 2016), or linked to others, depending on the theory considered, as the subjective well-being (Diener, 2000; Strack et al., 1991) or psychological well-being (Bryce and Haworth, 2003; Ryff and Keyes, 1995; Warr, 1987, 1990). A review of the different definitions reveals that they are supported by each theory they have been built from (Veenhoven, 2012). Like most happiness definitions, the subjective well-being mostly refers to positive feelings associated to positive subjective assessments (Diener et al., 1991). In its broadest sense, happiness is a general term for all the good in life. According to Blanch et al. (2010), instruments to evaluate well-being (happiness) are, among others: the general health questionnaire (Goldberg and Williams, 1996), beck depression inventory (Beck et al., 1961), satisfaction with life scale (Diener, 1994; Diener et al., 1985), Oxford happiness questionnaire (Hills and Argyle, 2002), quality of life enjoyment and satisfaction questionnaire (Endicott et al., 1993), scales of psychological well-being (Ryff and Keyes, 1995; Van Dierendonck, 2004) and the WHO quality of life assessment instrument (De Vries and Van Heck, 1997). These instruments consider, mostly, health and pathologic factors as the discriminating criteria and, in particular, psychopathologic factors.
Happiness at work is a multidimensional concept including transient moods and emotions, relatively stable attitudes and highly stable individual dispositions, aggregated at an individual level (Fisher, 2010). According to Bakker et al. (2011), happinessat work could be conceptualized as a framework, considering that the professional is satisfied with his job and experiences frequent positive emotions, such as joy and happiness, and infrequent negative emotions, like sadness and anger.
Different authors have been working on the emotional well-being at work. However, measures specifically dedicated to evaluating “job design happiness” (JDH) are focused on health and pathology factors as the discriminating criteria, in particular, psychopathology factors as work-related emotions, by applying dimensions of pleasantness and arousal (Warr, 1987, 1990). The...