A Case Study on Mental Health and Happiness of University Employees in West Bengal: Implications for Workplace Well-Being and Institutional Management

Abstract: This paper presents a case study of mental health and happiness among non-teaching employees of public universities in West Bengal. Drawing on empirical research and the accompanying data set (N = 328), the study employs the Mental Health Continuum—Short Form (MHC-SF) and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ) to describe levels of well-being, test group differences, and examine the association between happiness and mental health. Descriptive statistics and inferential tests (independent-samples t tests, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation) were run on the full sample. Findings show: (a) average OHQ scores correspond to a per-item mean of 4.11 (on a 1–6 scale), while MHC-SF scores correspond to 2.90 per item (0–5 scale); (b) women report significantly higher happiness than men; men report higher (but not significantly higher) mental health; (c) employment nature, education, work experience, and age groups exhibit statistically significant differences; and (d) happiness and mental health are weakly, negatively correlated (r = −.13, p = .023). The paper discusses institutional explanations and outlines management-oriented interventions for Indian universities. The data set is provided as supplementary material to ensure transparency.