Leading With Happiness: The Institutional Happiness Framework for Higher Education Leaders

1. Introduction

One of the worst global pandemics in recorded history, coronavirus-19, had a significant effect on the academic sector, causing widespread changes in how education sector operates. The Covid-19 epidemic served as an impetus for this paradigm change, and it occurred irrespective of whether the communities were already established, in the course of development, or underdeveloped. There have been numerous natural and man-made disasters in India's past, but this is the first time in our country's history that the education system has had to undertake a complete 180-degree shift. Due to recent events, the information sharing industry and its players have undergone substantial changes (Doyumaç et al., 2020). Previous works of literature did not foresee the rapid rate at which teaching and learning methods were changing. Although the pandemic hampered efforts to disseminate information, it also presented an unexpected window of opportunity (Han, 2021) to advance toward the Sustainable Development Goals for Education, set by the United Nations in 2030.

Knowledge sharing in India has been propelled in large part by developments in IT and IT-enabled services (Crisolo, 2018). The impact of the education sector on the global economy has grown as a result of digitalization and modernisation. On the other side, the ambiance that the pandemic produced served as a wake-up call to university personnel about the significance of maintaining emotional steadiness and awareness in their work. Recent research has shown that teachers' ability to inspire hope and enthusiasm in their students is crucial, and this has led some to propose introducing “happiness courses” into the educational system (Rodowicz et al., 2020). Happy educators build happy students. Therefore, the new dimension of employee happiness and well-being has emerged as a powerful force in the effort to establish Sustainable Universities alongside technology up-skilling. There has been an enormous change in perspective on the value of happiness at work during the past few decades. Happiness was previously not a major focus in the study of organizational behaviour, but this has changed with the rise of positive psychology and a subsequent focus on employee satisfaction.

Academic Leaders may cultivate a happy and healthy workplace by putting an emphasis on aspects like employee engagement, healthy relationships, and a good and encouraging culture. This is good for the employees individually, and it also helps the institution as a whole (Fisher, 2010a). The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the education sector, forcing educational leaders to make tough decisions in order to ensure both immediate survival and long-term growth and development. Initially, many academics were hesitant to adopt the new technology-based models of knowledge exchange, due to health concerns and changes in teaching patterns. Additionally, the blurring of personal and professional boundaries, coupled with an expanded scope of work, has led to increased stress levels among educators. Effective leadership has been identified as a key driver for transforming the education system (Gyang, 2020). Educational leadership is a community-based process that influences and guides individuals to work voluntarily towards achieving common goals in educational institutions (Matthew, 2017). Educational leaders are now prioritizing the well-being of educators and are developing policies that promote a more supportive and balanced environment, with the aim of building sustainable universities. During the pandemic, some of the major leadership styles adopted by academic leaders are authentic leadership, servant leadership, leader-member exchange (LMX), situational leadership, distributed leadership, and ineffective forms of leadership (Lalani et al., 2021).