Chapter 1

PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

INTRODUCTION

Success is a term that is used to describe a person that has achieved his or her personal,

financial or career goals but the question is ‘Is there any key for success’ that has been important

question in occupational psychology. Some studies showed that IQ will predict the person

success (Hunter 2004). In our own family it is being obvious that those siblings and cousins who

are intelligent and got a higher grades in quiz and exam they are being appreciated and given an

immense amount of respect compared to those siblings and cousins who receives low grades or

does not perform well and they are commonly degraded and calling them like slow, dumb,

mentally challenged and many more (Duckworth 2007). However, ‘Why other people achieved

success and others do not, though they have the same level of intelligence’ is still remaining

unanswered. Intelligence quotient is a common criterion to attain success and mostly that other

people they tend to disregard other traits like stable personality, consistency and hardworking

also account for a person success (Finamore2006). Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein are those

people who succeed even though they are not academically sound.

Grit is an effort and perseverance towards a long term goal (Duckworth 2007). According

to her this concept is the reason why people achieve more through showing a lot of patience and

work energetically towards a long term goal without getting dissatisfied and eventually they

succeed as well as Jesus Datu said that one of the characteristic of gritty person is that he has the

capability to adopt the changing situations in life with appreciating changes, desire for

improvement, and flexibility of plan as a result in his Triarchic Model of Grit Scale as being

norm in the Philippines.

 Success is all we want but another question goes on is that ‘does a gritty person brings his

life happy and more satisfied’. According to Maslow people are happy whenever they attained

their needs and these are physiological such as food, water, sex, sleep, breathing.. Safety needs

such as security of body, employment, morality, resources. Love and belonging such as

friendship, family, sexual intimacy. Esteem need are those within in us such as self-esteem,

confidence, achievement, respect of others and respect by others, and last played as the highest

peak is the Self-actualization when a person attain his morality, creativity spontaneity, problem

solving, lack of prejudice and acceptance of others. In addition, Lyubomirsky(2018) through

working hard is the recipe to attain success then you will be happy eventually. Moreover, it is a

term that simply defines as positive mood, and it is a state of wellbeing that encompass living a

good life- where in it is a sense of meaning and deep satisfaction based from hedonic treadmill.

Furthermore, some studies revealed that life satisfaction has a significant direct effect on

happiness. ( Shahrooz 2016)

Grit is commonly happen in pursuing highest grade academically as prediction for

success while this research will use this concept in the context of work. In addition, it is also

being questioned that to what extent affect actual work performance in a business environment

(Suzuki et. al 2015)

Therefore, the study will open a way to research about Grit, Happiness and life

Satisfaction among Technical Employees.

Technical employees are workers in which they have a lot of knowledge and abilities to

perform a specific task (Dolye 2018). This also referred to as hard skills and acquires through

learning and practices as compare to soft skills in which it is a skill that people possess an ability
and knowledge base from his character and personality traits. Pharmacy skills, Biology skills,

architecture skills, computer skills, math skills, therapeutic skills, teaching skills, graphic design

and many more are example of technical work thus, these are learnable.(Journal of career

planning).

Therefore, this research will explore to technical employee as our respondents that

objectively to measure their Grit level in the filed of work and its relation to their level of

happiness and life satisfaction. In addition these will use the Triarchic Model of Grit by

Datu(2017) with three dimension such as Perseverance of effort, consistency of interest and

adaptability. ‘Am a hard worker example question of the first domain, ( e.g New ideas and

projects sometimes distract me from previous ones) Is an example of question of the second

domain while (e.g changes in life motivate me to work harder)is an example of the last domains

and it is measure by a Likert scale where in it is a fixed choice response formats and are designed

to measure attitudes or opinions.(Bowling, et al). 1 not like at all and it intensify up to degree of

5 nwhich is very much like me. On the other hand, happiness will measure through a Likert type

the Subjective Happiness Scale with 4- items question by Lyubomirsky and Lepper. This has 1

for not a very happy person and 7 for a very happy person. For life satisfaction is also measure

by a Likert type scale or the Satisfaction with life scale with 5-items questions by Diener, Larsen

and Griffin. It consist of agree and strong disagree statement. 1- for strongly disagree and 7 - for

strongly agree with an example question of’ (e.g I am satisfied with my life)
Statement of the Problem

This study aimed to investigate the Grit, Happiness and life satisfaction among Technical

Employees of Tarlac Sate University

Specifically, it answered the following questions:

1. What is the personal profile of the Technical Employee in terms of the following :

1.1 Age

1.2 Sex

1.3 Civil Status

1.4 Educational Attainment

1.5 Salary/ Income

1.6 Length of tenure.

2. How do the respondents perceived the concept of Grit ?

2.1 Perseverance

2.1 Consistency of interest

2.3 Adaptability

3. How do the respondents perceived the concept of Happiness ?

3. 1Affective
 3.2 Cognitive

4. How do the respondents perceived the concept of Life satisfaction as a whole?

5. What is the implication can be drawn base from the findings of the study?

Significance of the Study

This study is significant and of a great help to the following:

To TSU Administration

They will be guided to take relevant action and give them information to other factors

that can influence the improvement of their employees, specifically on technical employees. This

will lead them in attaining greater efficiency and productivity in workplace.

To the Government

They will make programs and seminars that help technical workers to increase their ideas

related to their working professions.

To Technical Employees

The findings of the study will enlightened them and this research serves as an eye opener

to inspire them.

To the Future Researchers

This research will served as a source of relevant and supplementary information to other

similar study. Finally, this study could serve as a reliable and credible reference for the future
undertakings of keen researchers. Likewise, it would also serve as a guide in writing a

correlation study.

Scope and Delimitation

This study will focus on the Grit, Happiness and Life satisfaction among Technical

Employees of Tarlac State University.

This study dealt with personal data of Technical Employees in terms of their Age, Sex,

Civil Status, Educational Attainment, Salary/ Income and Length of tenure. Furthermore, it also

include on how the respondents perceived Grit such as perseverance, Consistency of interest and

Adaptability using Triarchic Model of Grit Scale (Datu 2017)also Happiness using Subjective

Happiness Scale by Lyubomirsky and Lepper and life satisfaction as a whole by Diener et al

The study is delaminating to the Technical Employee who is willing to participate.

However, the data gathered will be remain confidentisl.Technical employees such as workers in

which they have a lot of knowledge and abilities to perform a specific task (Dolye 2018)

Definition of Terms

The following term are defined in accordance with their operational meaning to have a

working knowledge and better understanding of the study.

Technical Employees. Those are the worker who has a lot of knowledge and abilities to perform

a specific task (Dolye, 2018). This also referred to as hard skills and acquires through learning

and practices as compare to soft skills in which it is a skill that a person possesses an ability and

knowledge base from his character and personality traits. In this research Technical Employees is

the respondents.

Grit. Grit refers to one’s passion and perseverance for long-term goals (Duckworth,

Peterson,Matthews, & Kelly, 2007). In addition, according to Datu (2017) it is also a

perseverance, consistency of interest and adaptability to appreciate changes desire for

improvement, and flexibility of plans. In this research, adopted the meaning of Grit defined by

Duckworth and Datu as well as other studies.

Grit Scale. A 10-item questionnaire Triarchic Model of Grit Scale developed by Datu and

colleagues 2017. It measure three factors in terms of the following:

1. Consistency of Interest. One of the two factor of grit which is equated for passion.
2. Perseverance. Refers to individual’s tendency to persevere towards hard and

challenging goals.
3. Adaptability. Refers to one’s ability to adapt to changing situations in life.

Happiness. Lyubomirsky(2018) through working hard is the recipe to attain success then you

will be happy eventually. Dispositional factors (Costa and McCrae, 1980, 1984) have each been

viewed as important determinants of happiness. Dispositional factors are determinants of

happiness according to McCrae and Costa these are Openness to experience is willingness to try

new things and a curious nature. Conscientiousness is self-discipline, self-control, and

reflectivity. Extraversion is high levels of engagement in the outside world. Agreeableness is

harmoniousness and ability to get along with others and neuroticism is emotional instability and
tolerance of stress. Also, Maslow people are happy whenever they attained their needs and these

are physiological such as food, water, sex, sleep, and breathing. Safety needs such as security of

body, employment, morality, resources. Love and belonging such as friendship, family, sexual

intimacy. Esteem need are those within in us such as self-esteem, confidence, achievement,

respect of others and respect by others, and last played as the highest peak is the Self-

actualization when a person attain his morality, creativity spontaneity, problem solving, lack of

prejudice and acceptance of others. In this research, happiness defined as the positive outlook of

the respondents despite of catastrophes.

Happiness Scale. Using a “subjectivist” approach to the assessment of happiness, a new 4-item

measure of global subjective happiness was developed and validated in 14 studies with a total of

2,732 participants. Lyubomirsky (2018)

Life Satisfaction. It is an overall assessment of feelings and attitudes about one's life at a

particular point in time ranging from negative to positive. It is one of three major indicators of

well-being: life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect (Diener, 1984). Life Satisfaction

evaluation of life as a whole. In this research,

Satisfaction with Life Scale. A 5-item scale designed to measure global cognitive judgments of

one’s life satisfaction (not a measure of either positive or negative affect). Participants indicate

how much they agree or disagree with each of the 5 items using a 7-point scale that ranges from

7 strongly agree to 1 strongly disagree.

https://www.sunyjefferson.edu/sites/default/files/Hard_and_Soft_Skills_Booklet.pdf- Examples

of Technical

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/technical-job-skills.asp Technical Employee meaning

Hard skils

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/technical-skills-list-2063775- TECHNICAL E,PLOYEE

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/happiness- Hedonic treadmill

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-happiness/201808/is-happiness-consequence-or-

cause-career-success( 2018- HAPPINESS)

https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-five-factor-model-of-dispositional-traits-definition-lesson-

quiz.html (5 FACTOR THEORY MCCRAE AND COSTA)