The effect of workplace happiness on social slacking in healthcare workers

Workplace happiness is related to the satisfaction employees feel while performing their jobs and their level of commitment to their jobs. This concept is not only an element of individual satisfaction but also a reflection of organizational performance. On the other hand, workplace unhappiness occurs with negative effects such as employees' job dissatisfaction, stress and avoidance behaviors. Social loafing is a behavior in which individuals act with the idea that the effort they put forth alone is not important for the group and that it is not possible to understand who will contribute more to the group. The research reveals that unhappy employees at work are more prone to social loafing. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of workplace unhappiness on social loafing in healthcare workers. The sample of the study consists of healthcare workers at Tunceli State Hospital in Tunceli province. 103 healthcare workers from different professions were reached in the study. Data were obtained online. While collecting data for the study, the short form of the happiness at work scale developed by Polatcı and Ünüver (2021) and the perceived social loafing scale developed by Høigaard (2022) and whose validity and reliability study was conducted by Sezer and colleagues (2021) were used. According to the results of the study, the happiness levels of healthcare workers at work are at a medium level and the level of social loafing behavior is high. The happiness and social loafing levels of healthcare workers at work do not show a significant difference according to demographic variables. It was also determined that happiness at work has a positive and significant effect on social loafing.