Economic Happiness and Workplace Well-being as Drivers of Institutional Productivity: An Islamic Economic and SDG Perspective in Malaysia PHEIs

This study investigates the extent to which Islamic economic principles, economic happiness, and the integration of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) predict workplace well-being, conceptualized as an indirect indicator of institutional productivity, within Malaysian Private Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs).Drawing upon a cross-sectional survey of 120 academic and administrative personnel from Islamic-oriented institutions, the research employs descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression to evaluate the predictive strength of value-driven workplace practices.The results demonstrate significant positive associations between workplace well-being and both economic happiness (r = 0.698, p < 0.001) and Islamic economic principles with SDG-aligned practices (r = 0.841, p < 0.001).Regression analysis reveals that Islamic economic values (B = 0.567, p < 0.001) serve as a stronger predictor of well-being than economic happiness (B = 0.139, p = 0.014), with both explaining 72.2% of the variance in subjective well-being (R = 0.722).These findings underscore the institutional importance of embedding Islamic ethical frameworks and sustainability principles to promote well-being, engagement, and productivity.