Life Satisfaction – What Does it Really Mean to Indians?

Abstract

Globalization, customer-oriented bureaucracy, changing lifestyle patterns and erratic demographic changes have all laid foundation to the modern contemporary society of India. In order to account the changing contexts, most research studies conducted under the organizational context have explored either the job satisfaction construct or the role related aspects. This limits the earlier studies to the work domain alone. This study has tried exploring the Life Satisfaction construct, which in itself is comprehensive and inclusively measures both the work and non-work domains. The present study empirically examines the variables of Ideal Life, Excellent Life Conditions, Satisfied Life, Important Things Achieved in Life and Happiness with status quo for the services sector in India. A total sample of 411 employees has recorded their responses that were chosen across seven industries. The Study reveals that the female employees were found to possess excellent life conditions and a more ideal life than their male counterparts. While the men scored on higher satisfaction with life,
higher achievement and were in relatively high spirits about their life. This study is phenomenal in the sense that it explored a rare construct for a developing economy which is still foreseeing a multitude of transitions.