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Employee Wellbeing, Productivity, and Firm Performance
... Thus, workplace well-being denotes all facets of working life, from the quality and safety of the physical environment, to the way workers feel about the work they do and their working environment, climate and organisation (Sharpe and Fard, 2022). Along these lines, Isham et al. (2020), and Krekel et al. (2019) following Human Relations Theory states that greater employee well-being is associated with improved morale, which, in turn, leads to higher productivity. ...
... In addition to the relationship between well-being and productivity at an individual level, the literature also analyses this impact at firm level (Haddon, 2018;Miller, 2016). Here, poor well-being has notable costs for productivity, whereas promoting and supporting employee well-being has identifiable benefits for productivity (Isham et al., 2020;Krekel et al., 2019;Pfeffer, 2018). Moreover, various studies show that employee well-being has a variety of positive impacts for company outcomes, including increases in competitive advantage, performance, productivity, hiring selectivity, customer satisfaction, employee engagement and reduced absenteeism (Anderson et al., 2001;Browne, 2000;DeJoy and Wilson, 2003;Grawitch et al., 2006;Sharpe and Fard, 2022). ...
... The role played by the characteristics of apprenticeship in the mental health and well-being of apprentices in higher education have been considered (Umeokafor, 2021). Furthermore, in an environment committed to sustainability, it is important for apprentices' workplace experience to consider their well-being, given that it has been demonstrated that well-being promotes satisfaction and consequently business productivity (Haddon, 2018;Isham et al., 2020;Krekel et al., 2019). This study therefore seeks to capture that perspective of well-being in the students' workplace experience in an apprenticeship programme. ...
Purpose
This study seeks to show whether workplace experience (WE) in an apprenticeship programme affects the duration of joblessness amongst recent university graduates and to determine the antecedents that support a workplace well-being experience during an apprenticeship programme. Additionally, the research introduces the moderating effect of gender in order better to understand under what circumstances apprenticeship reduces the time taken to find employment.
Design/methodology/approach
The research proposes PLS equation modelling constructed with a sample of 129 students from the Business Administration and Management degree at Mondragon University.
Findings
The research finds that social support and job demand are key features of work that should be addressed to ensure a workplace well-being experience in an apprenticeship programme. In addition, a workplace well-being experience during apprenticeship reduced the time taken by students to access their first job. This means that job training in a company helps students get their first job, but it is not the primary factor. The study also shows that men who had workplace well-being experience in an apprenticeship programme take less time to find their first job.
Originality/value
The study proposes an exclusive analysis of apprenticeship programmes in higher education systems from the perspective of workplace well-being experience, based on the DCS model. This research also adds to the literature on apprenticeship by providing evidence that a positive experience of work during an apprenticeship programme facilitates undergraduate students in securing employment. Furthermore, this paper confirms that workplace well-being experiences in apprenticeship programmes constitute a valid tool for tackling youth unemployment, and finds that it is more efficient amongst males than females.
... The perceived benefits of appropriate utilisation, shown in Figure 1, are widespread across all areas of the veterinary practice. The four main categories of positive impacts -Personal, Team, Financial and Client/Patient -align with the companion animal utilisation research (Brown & Ma, 2023) and the main themes that Krekel et al. (2019) found. There were, however, some additional points within the high-level themes highlighted for rural veterinary teams. ...
... As discussed in the introduction, appropriate utilisation of staff has shown a strong correlation between staff wellbeing and job satisfaction (Brown, 2020;Page & Vella-Brodrick, 2009;Grawitch et al., 2006;Nelissen et al., 2017). Further to that, Krekel et al. (2019) carried out a comprehensive meta-analysis of 339 independent research studies and found a strong positive correlation between employee satisfaction, employee productivity and customer loyalty, which ultimately led to better profitability. ...
Utilisation of veterinary professional staff in rural animal veterinary practice has long been anecdotally reported as poor in Aotearoa / New Zealand. Evidence shows that skill utilisation is poor, and this is likely impacted by the low ratios of non-veterinarian staff to each veterinarian in rural animal veterinary practice. This participative action research utilised focus groups with a range of staff practising in rural animal veterinary practice in Aotearoa / New Zealand, who self-selected as having experience with excellent utilisation. Participants were asked to imagine what a future with excellent utilisation in rural animal veterinary practice in Aotearoa / New Zealand would look like. This research clarifies role definitions of a veterinarian, rural animal veterinary technician and rural animal healthcare assistant, and documents examples of task allocation in an interprofessional team. The participants identified that the outcomes of achieving appropriate utilisation are likely to be beneficial to individuals, the team, animals, clients, and the business profitability, however, a significant number of barriers were identified that may prevent implementation of appropriate utilisation. These included a disconnect between the current rural animal veterinary technician qualifications and the requirement from veterinary clinical practice for specific skills, rather than a full qualification; the current veterinary training pathway not setting up veterinarians to be consultants; lack of regulation of allied veterinary professionals; current skills in the team; lack of trust in technicians from veterinarians; perception of client expectations that a vet will attend; willingness of veterinarians to relinquish control; lack of availability of technical staff; the requirement for veterinarians to provide 27/4 after-hours service; and the risk of technicians leaving after being trained up to go out on their own. Whilst overcoming some of these barriers requires industryled solutions, many can be resolved immediately within individual teams. Therefore, there is no need to wait for industry change to begin creating veterinary teams with excellent utilisation within individual rural animal veterinary practices.
... Well-being and job satisfaction are important predictors of work engagement and performance (Wright & Cropanzano, 2000). Higher well-being and job satisfaction lead to better performance, increased productivity, and improved organizational performance (Krekel et al., 2019). ...
... As previously highlighted in the motivation section, research has consistently demonstrated that employees' well-being and job satisfaction play crucial roles in predicting work engagement and overall performance (Wright & Cropanzano, 2000). It has been widely acknowledged that higher levels of well-being and job satisfaction among employees are associated with improved performance, increased productivity, and ultimately, enhanced organizational performance (Krekel et al., 2019). ...
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) drafted its People Strategy 2020-2025 centered around positive employees' experience, to optimize their contribution to the organization's mission. With a global workforce of 20,000 operating in over 100 challenging contexts, understanding employees' contextual challenges and specific needs is crucial. This research aims to create and evaluate a context-based tool to assess employees' experiences and get their insights on proper organizational support. The goal is to gain an overall understanding of how these employees are faring amidst their contextual challenges and, more importantly, to gather their perspectives on effective practices that can enhance their well-being and motivation. Lebanon is the chosen study context. It has faced a series of disruptive events since 2019, including the ongoing economic collapse, Covid-19, Beirut blast, Cholera outbreaks, and the earthquakes. A tailored survey was developed to collect the experiences and perspectives of resident staff in Lebanon. Experts in the context were consulted to ensure the survey's suitability, and it was subsequently shared with the study group. The responses were analyzed and discussed with local experts. The results demonstrated active engagement of the staff, yielding valuable insights into effective strain-buffering practices to enhance well-being and motivation in their unique context. The process also highlighted the potential of this platform to inform the decisions on proper organizational support by a participatory and inclusive approach. Recommendations include implementing a similar survey tailored to mobile staff in ICRC Lebanon and advocating for the adoption of this process across all ICRC contexts. By encouraging the creation of tailored channels, this approach enables the development of context-specific people strategies that align with the organization's broader goals while fostering inclusiveness and engagement.
... As discussed in the introduction, high utilisation of staff has shown a strong correlation with staff wellbeing and job satisfaction (Brown, 2020;Page & Vella-Brodrick, 2009;Grawitch et al., 2006, Nelissen et al., 2017. Further to that, Krekel et al. (2019) carried out a comprehensive meta-analysis of 339 independent research studies and found a strong positive correlation between employee satisfaction, employee productivity and customer loyalty, which ultimately led to greater profitability. ...
... When discussing the outcomes of implementing an excellent utilisation model, the focus-group participants generated ideas that were aligned with the main themes that Krekel et al. (2019) found. The perceived benefits are widespread across all areas of the veterinary practice -improving individual staff wellbeing, a clinic's teamwork and culture, better outcomes for clients and patients, as well as potentially increasing financial gain for the business. ...
Utilisation of all staff in companion animal veterinary practice has long been reported as sub-optimal in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Evidence shows that skill utilisation is poor, and this is likely impacted by the very low ratios of non-veterinarian staff to each veterinarian in a veterinary practice. This participative action research utilised co-design with a range of staff practising in companion animal clinical practice in Aotearoa/New Zealand, who self-selected as having experience with excellent utilisation. Participants were asked to imagine what a future with excellent utilisation in Aotearoa/New Zealand would look like. This research clarifies role definitions of a veterinarian, companion animal registered veterinary nurse and companion animal healthcare assistant, documents examples of task allocation in an interprofessional team, and develops models to show how ratios of 11:2–14:2 of non-veterinarian staff to veterinarians could be operationalised. The outcomes of achieving this model are likely be beneficial to staff, animals, clients and the business profitability. However, a significant number of barriers are present which may prevent implementation of this model. These include lack of trust, poor team culture, perceived or real skill gaps in veterinary nurses, current legal risks associated with task delegation by veterinarians, and insufficient time available to implement change. Whilst overcoming some of these barriers requires industry-led solutions, many can be resolved immediately within individual teams. Therefore, there is no need to wait for industry change to begin creating veterinary teams with excellent utilisation within individual veterinary practices.
... This has led researchers to alternatives such as job satisfaction, which is easy to measure using surveys. A recent meta-analysis (Krekel et al., 2019) found a strong correlation with company performance. However, this may be contextual, and arise from multiple factors in a given situation. ...
... Studies in Western settings tend to focus on situations where individual productivity is easy to measure, like call centres. Although Western studies do suggest a correlation between well-being, or happiness, and productivity, causality remains unclear (Warr and Nielsen, 2018;Krekel et al., 2019). If there is a connection, it may not be straightforward (Warr and Nielsen, 2018). ...
Purpose
Companies are concerned about the well-being of workers in their supply chains, but conventional audits fail to uncover critical problems. Yet, if the happy worker – productive worker thesis is correct, it would benefit factories in fast-developing countries, particularly China which is key to many global supply chains, to ensure the well-being of their workers. The authors set out to better understand the relationship between well-being and performance in four Chinese factories.
Design/methodology/approach
Over 12-months the authors collected digital diaries from 466 workers in four factories, and monthly data about the performance of their factories. The authors used this data to gain insights into the well-being of workers in these factories; to design experimental interventions to improve this; and to consider any effects these had on factory performance.
Findings
The experiments showed that training interventions to improve workers' well-being through their work relationships and individual skills improved not just a factory's general worker well-being, but also some aspects of its performance and worker retention. Thus, it brought benefits not only for the workers but also for the factory owners and their client companies.
Originality/value
While there is a significant body of research investigating the happy worker – productive worker thesis, this was not conducted in Chinese factories. The authors’ work demonstrates that in this and similar environments, workers' eudaimonic well-being is more important than might be assumed, and that in this context there is a relationship between well-being and performance which can be practically addressed.
... According to a meta-analysis (339 Gallup studies examined the well-being and productivity of 1,882,131 workers at 230 organisations in 49 industry sectors worldwide), worker satisfaction had a strong positive correlation with productivity and client loyalty and a negative correlation with turnover (Krekel et al., 2019). ...
Purpose – Physical activity (PA) has been widely studied for its individual and societal benefits, but research
on how organisations can effectively promote workplace physical activity (WPA) programmes is lacking. This
article aims to examine the organisational-level benefits and value drivers of corporate PA programmes whilst
also exploring the factors that motivate employees to participate in these programmes.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors used the self-determination theory (SDT) and the Hungarian
Sport Motivation Scale (H-SMS) – which was modified and validated from the original English SMS scale,
which is one of the six most highly cited motivation questionnaires in sports – to assess employees’ motivation
towards sports. In conjunction, in-depth interviews with company representatives were conducted to create a
mind map outlining the impacts and advantages of WPA programmes. The study involved interviews with 13
managers in Hungary and a survey completed by 728 employees.
Findings – The findings of the authors’ study indicate that WPA programmes had positive effects on
employee engagement, turnover reduction and absenteeism. However, the authors’ results also revealed that
employee motivation to participate in these programmes was primarily driven by external factors, such as
identified and introjected regulators, indicating a low level of intrinsic motivation for sports in the workplace.
It is important to classify employees based on their motivation and behaviour to design and promote effective
PA programmes in the workplace and to increase participation rates.
Originality/value – The authors’ findings indicate the importance of aligning WPA programme promotion
with employee motivation. This can encourage organisations to initiate their programmes, address
participation challenges and strive for higher engagement rates. Further research on employee motivation
can support the development of more effective communication strategies for companies in this context.
Keywords Workplace physical activity (WPA), Sport motivation, Self-determination theory,
Managers’ perspective, Employee perspective
... Irrespective of the type of organization, employee satisfaction and welfare remain important determinants of the success of an organization [28][29][30][31]. In healthcare settings, examples of organizational issues that are thought to contribute to burnout include funding model changes, the increasing burden of electronic medical records, dysfunctional administration, and system-wide communication issues [18]. ...
Burnout has a significant impact on the individual in terms of their physical and psychological well-being. The negative flow-on effects on the organization’s productivity and workforce, in general, are also important to recognize. In the healthcare sector, burnout of clinicians can impact the quality of care and patient safety outcomes. It is important and necessary to understand the contributing systemic, organizational, and individual-specific factors to develop a holistic response to prevent burnout. An integrated approach should be aimed at the systems level, which requires continual monitoring and assessment of resilience and workloads; at the organizational level, identifying factors unique to the organization type and setting; and at the individual level, focused on their well-being.
... Organisational performance in today's workforce can be defined as a company's ability to achieve goals in an environment of constant change (Otto et al., 2020). Organisational performance analysis is the capacity to implement the strategies, tactics and resources utilised to assess programme and organisational performance and provide crucial performance data that is used to guide choices, actions, communications and accountability systems (Krekel et al., 2019). ...
Purpose
The major objective of the study is to investigate the effect of selected customer retention strategies (fair pricing, online marketing and frequent communication) on perceived service quality and organisational performance within the retail sector in Zimbabwe. Also, the study sought to understand the moderating role of ICT on the effect of customer retention strategies on perceived service quality and organisational performance.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional survey of 280 employees within Zimbabwe's retail sector was adopted and respondents were selected using simple random sampling method. A structured questionnaire with Likert type questions was used to gather data.
Findings
The study findings indicate that the performance of organisations within the retail sector is influenced by superior service quality, selected customer retention strategies and also moderated by the use of ICT.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the business management body of knowledge by assessing the effect of selected customer retention strategies (fair pricing, online marketing and frequent communication) on perceived service quality and organisational performance within the retail industry of an emerging economy. The study is also unique in that it used ICT to moderate the effect of selected customer retention strategies on perceived service quality and organisational performance.
... Studies have shown that the general well-being of workers has greatly improved over the years due to the gradual annihilation of labor-intensive tasks, production improvements, and time savings with the progression of each revolution. (Krekel et al. 2019) In light of the impact of technological advancements on value creation, exchange, and distribution, the emerging concept of 'human centricity' has become a pivotal focus in the industry. It is crucial for technologies to be intentionally designed to align with future social values, as emphasized by Xu et al. (2021). ...
... role of ventilation on the risk of infectious disease transmission indoors) [1][2][3] and mental health [4][5][6]. Evidence suggests that employees' work environment is linked to their productivity and performance at work [7][8][9], and improved health and well-being is correlated with increased levels of business profit [10]. Previous studies have also characterized the social aspects of the workspaces and their impact on employee's well-being in the context of leadership, the work-home interface, purpose and meaning, and supervision [11]. ...
Growing evidence suggests that environmental attributes of office spaces have significant impacts on human health, well-being and job productivity. Therefore, understanding the associations between environmental and social factors of work and human health is necessary for improving the design and operation of a new type of commercial real estate that support the triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit.
Methods
We used a validated survey-based health evaluation tool-the Flourishing Index (FI), to assess the well-being of office workers and its association with indoor environmental quality (IEQ). We deployed environmental monitoring sensors and measured carbon dioxide (CO2), particulate matter of 2.5 μm (PM2.5), temperature and relative humidity, PM2.5and asked participants to rate the environmental factors on a 5-point scale, based upon their perception. We surveyed 574 employees from one company with workplaces in seven buildings located in downtown Bangkok.
Results
Participants' FI scores had significant positive correlations with reported satisfaction of IAQ, noise, temperature, and light in their workspace. We found that increased CO2 concentrations, lower IAQ satisfaction, and lower FI scores were associated with increased reports of respiratory symptoms, including shortness-of-breath, cough, and sore-throat. Moreover, PM2.5 and CO2 concentration were negatively correlated with FI scores. However, the relationship between CO2 and FI was fully mediated by IAQ satisfaction while PM2.5 directly affected FI. Our research characterizes the interconnected relationships between IEQ and the well-being of office workers and highlights the application of continuous environmental monitoring for assessing employees’ health indoors.
... Employee wellbeing is the essential variable that impacts an organisation's success or failure and affects employees' overall happiness, attitudes, and performance (Adams, 2019;Jaiswal & Dyaram, 2019;Krekel, Ward, & De Neve, 2019). The literature indicates that productive employees have high levels of employee wellbeing (Nielsen et al., 2017). ...
This study examines the influence of transformational leadership and organisational support in elevating workplace employee wellbeing. A total of 467 self-administered questionnaires were distributed to Tanzanian public higher-learning institution employees. The findings from partial least squares structural equation modelling demonstrated that transformational leadership directly influences employee wellbeing at the workplace. The study's results further demonstrate that the impact of transformational leadership on workplace employee wellbeing is partially mediated by perceived organisational support. These findings provide insights that may serve as a foundation for managers and policymakers when developing policies and programmes to enhance employee wellbeing. The study provides more empirical evidence on the applicability of the affective event theory and organisational support theory in higher learning institutions. It makes a distinctive contribution to the theory by revealing the mediation role of perceived organisational support on the influence of transformational leadership on workplace employee wellbeing. Thus, public higher learning institutions’ managers should use transformational leadership and perceived organisational support to improve workplace employee wellbeing.
... A study conducted on 1,882,131 employees from 230 companies showed a positive relationship between employee satisfaction with the company they work for and productivity and customer loyalty, the results of the same study also showed a negative relationship between employee satisfaction and employee turnover, it can be concluded that the higher the well-being in the workplace is positively related to the profits obtained by the company. The higher the employee well being, the higher the profit that will be generated (Krekel, Ward, & De Neve, 2019). ...
Employee well-being is an important issue that must be considered by the Human Resources Development department in every organization to be able to maximize employee performance and optimize organizational achievement. This research was conducted using a systematic literature review with sources from various journal publishers. The independent variables examined in this study are Leadership Agility, Workload, Organizational culture, and Career Adaptability. The results and this research show that the implementation of Employee well-being can be achieved if an organization has an agile leader, can analyze the ideal workload, has a positive work culture and has employees with good career adaptability. Suggestions for further research are to take data directly from the field so that the research results become more valid.
... Despite the economic benefits, issues have been raised regarding the influence of AM on worker wellbeing (Meijerink & Bondarouk, 2021;, which can in turn have an impact on organizational productivity and performance in the long run (Krekel et al., 2019;Van De Voorde et al., 2012). Aiming to provide a starting point for understanding the complexity of the dynamics at workplaces with AM and its implications on employee wellbeing, this paper investigates the mediating mechanism of social and economic exchange relationships between AM and job engagement at work. ...
... Wellness and wellbeing are high priority topics for Millennials and Generation Z and organizations that acknowledge the importance of employees' welfare and wellbeing have been shown to be more profitable and have happier and healthier employees (Clifton, 2022). Such programs need not be expensive, but educating employees about managing work-related and personal stress and creating supportive Human Resource Management systems that demonstrate a commitment to employees have been found to improve employee morale and performance (Krekel, Ward & De Neve, 2019). ...
Quiet Quitting has been well established as the unwillingness of employees to be fully engaged at work and committed to their organization's success. This paper explains the nature of Quiet Quitting and identifies ten steps that organizations and individual can undertake to reverse this dysfunctional behavior and increase the ability of individuals and organizations to thrive and flourish.
... Wellness and wellbeing are high priority topics for Millennials and Generation Z and organizations that acknowledge the importance of employees' welfare and wellbeing have been shown to be more profitable and have happier and healthier employees (Clifton, 2022). Such programs need not be expensive, but educating employees about managing work-related and personal stress and creating supportive Human Resource Management systems that demonstrate a commitment to employees have been found to improve employee morale and performance (Krekel, Ward & De Neve, 2019). ...
... Well-being also has the potential to influence employees and organizations negatively. Not being very productive results in poor well-being in employees, gives rise to low quality of the decisions taken, and continuously reduces their overall contribution to the organization (Krekel, Ward, & De Neve, 2019). Therefore, it is necessary to have a review to build a conceptual framework that can understand the relationship between employee well-being and innovative work behavior. ...
This study analyze the effect of employee wellbeing and employee resilience on innovative work behavior mediated by the work climate in the insurance industry in DKI Jakarta. This research method uses a quantitative approach, tested by Structural. Equation Modeling with the help of the Amos program. The sampling method uses purposive sampling. The data was collected using a questionnaire which was distributed randomly to all departments of 3 (three) life insurance companies and 3 (three) general insurance companies via a google form. The findings in this study indicate that there is no positive effect of employee wellbeing on innovation work behavior, there is a positive influence of employee resilience on innovation work behavior, and there is a positive effect of employee wellbeing on hybrid work climate., There is no positive effect of employee resilience on a hybrid work climate., there is a positive effect of hybrid work climate on innovation work behavior, there is an effect of employee wellbeing on innovation work behavior mediated by hybrid work climate, there is no effect of employee resilience on innovation work behavior mediated by hybrid work climate, there is no effect of hybrid work climate on innovation work behavior moderated by gender. The findings of this study have management implications that management can improve human resource development to identify and maintain resilience qualities in employees and influence them with specially designed interventions. In addition, a company climate that supports creativity and innovation also contributes to the emergence of innovative behavior in the workplace.
... • Influence of workers' health and well-being on productivity is often underestimated Although numerous studies have already shown that a high level of well-being leads to higher task performance (Krekel, Ward, and Neve 2019;Otto and Scholl 2011;Savino, Riccio, and Menanno 2020), the impact of human health on overall productivity is still underestimated and, therefore, not integrated into many scheduling approaches. In an extensive literature review, Arends, Prinz, and Abma (2017) concluded that poor job quality, including job strain, workload, and health, negatively affects work productivity. ...
... Obesity can cause the massive demanding in the physically job performance. however, the majority of the job tasks does not high requirement in the physical conditions such as officers, programmers, tec, it might has limited effects on these jobs [23]. ...
The method is providing and overview of the organization in the management perspective, within the health big data analysis, especially for the elderly employees, the organizations could sign the elderly employees within the right tasks, it reducing the costs by increasing the employees’ job performance and organization performance. By addressing the importance role of big health data analytics (BDHA) in the healthcare system .moreover BDHA enables a patient's medical records to be searched in a dynamic, interactive manner. One billion records were made in two hours. Current clinical reporting compares large health data profiles and meta-big health data, giving health apps basic interfaces. A combination of Hadoop/MapReduce and HBase was used to generate the necessary hospital-specific large heath data. One billion (10TB) and three billion (30TB) HBase large health data files might be created in a week or a month using the concept. Apache Hadoop technologies tested simulated medical records. Inconsistencies reduced big health data. An encounter-centered big health database was difficult to set up due to the complicated medical system connections between big health data profiles. Associated with job performance such as the gender, current/past job positions and the health conditions are important. For genders the 66.36% of respondents in the experiments are females, 33.64 are males, majority of are healthy which are 66.97%, 30.58% are common geriatric disease, rest 2.45% are suffering from occupational disease; In terms of the current/past job positions, 20% of the respondents are working as accountant, followed by sales and management level. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, lists 157 distinct illnesses. Individuals may be diagnosed with one or more illnesses as a consequence of medical health professionals watching and analyzing their symptoms. It has been discovered that mental health issues have a negative impact on employees' job performance. For example, research on individuals with anxiety and depression has a direct impact on concentrations, decision-making process, and risk-taking behavior, which can be determined for job performance. Machine learning focuses on approaches that can be used to create accurate predictions about future characteristics based on previous training and post training. Principles such as job task and computational learning are crucial for machine learning algorithms that use a large amount of big health data.
... Това не е случайно. Редица изследвания показват връзка между благополучието и производителността на труда [1]. Повисоките нива на благополучие на служителите се асоциират с по-голяма креативност и подобро справяне със задачите. ...
In the recent three decades the interest of happiness and well-being at work has increased, both from companies and research. Some studies have found that higher levels of employee well-being can be associated with better productivity. This paper will explore the relationship between the architectural and design aspects of working environment and well-being. It will also try to answer the question which environment`s features have a positive impact on the emotions and performance of employees and which have a negative impact.
... Csökken a hiányzás, a presenteeism (amikor a munkavállaló ugyan jelen van, de testileg vagy lelkileg nincs jól) és a fluktuáció is, növekszik a jóllét, az elégedettség és a termelékenység (Aldana, 2020). Egy 2019-ben készült 339 Gallup-tanulmány, 1882131 globális munkavállaló jóllétét és termelékenységét vizsgáló (49 iparág 230 független szervezetétől) metaanalízise szerint a munkavállalók elégedettsége erős pozitív korrelációt mutatott a munkavállalói termelékenységgel, valamint az ügyfélhűséggel és erős negatív korrelációt a fluktuációval (Krekel et al., 2019). Farkas et al. (2013) eredményei szerint a magyar munkavállalók munkahelyi motivációjában az anyagiak mellett egyre inkább előtérbe kerültek olyan tényezők is, mint a biztonság, a stabilitás, a jó munkahelyi légkör és a megfelelő kapcsolatok. ...
A fizikai aktivitás előnyei mind egyéni, mind társadalmi szinten jól ismertek és széles körben kutatottak. Kevesebb kutatás foglalkozik azonban a vállalati szinttel, különösen arra vonatkozóan, hogy a szervezetek hogyan tudják a leghatékonyabban ösztönözni alkalmazottaikat a fizikai aktivitásra és a munkahelyi mozgásprogramokban való részvételre. Jelen cikk a magyarországi mozgásprogramok előnyeit interjúkra épülő kvalitatív (n=13), míg a munkahelyi sportolással kapcsolatos előnyöket, motivációkat kérdőíves kvantitatív kutatással (n=728) mutatja be, utóbbit az önmeghatározás elméletének felhasználásával. A kutatás eredményei nyomán megállapítható, hogy míg a mozgásprogramok elindításának fő vezetői motivációi az elkötelezettség növelése, a fluktuáció és a hiányzások csökkentése voltak, addig a munkavállalókat leginkább az introjektált és az identifikált szabályozók motiválják, vagyis a munkahelyi sport nem teljesen belső indíttatású, és lazán kapcsolódik a vezetői célokhoz. A motivációval kapcsolatos további kutatások elengedhetetlenek ahhoz, hogy a vállalatok segítséget kapjanak abban, hogyan kommunikálhatják, népszerűsíthetik a leghatékonyabban a munkahelyi mozgásprogramjaikat a munkavállalóik számára.
... Over the past decade, the human dimension of seafood supply has become an increasing area of focus for researchers, policy-makers, and industry (Teh et al., 2019;Wilhelm et al., 2020;Szymkowiak, 2021). Post-pandemic attitudes held by employees towards their employers have changed and organizations are acknowledging the important connection between workplace conditions and well-being (Krekel et al., 2019). Leaders must now navigate the disclosure economy (Lutz et al., 2018;Sama et al., 2022), the 'Great Resignation' (Formica and Sfodera, 2022;Serenko, 2022), and a competitive talent market. ...
This paper focuses on the importance of equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in the aquaculture industry, with a particular emphasis on the sector in Scotland. Aquaculture is a particularly important industry when it comes to EDI, given its potential to address Sustainable Development Goals on gender equality and diversity. The paper highlights the increasing attention being paid to EDI in many areas and the significant benefits to businesses that adopt EDI policies, including improved reputation, increased innovation, and greater profitability. This paper draws on a survey of EDI in Scottish aquaculture, a workshop and interviews with industry experts to suggest concrete actions that could improve EDI in the sector. A key priority is the collection and publication of workforce data in Scottish aquaculture as well as industry champions who raise awarenes and promote EDI, and supporting cross-sector organizations who provide EDI training. We conclude by calling for more research to support the development of EDI in Scottish aquaculture, which will contribute to future resilience and fairness as well as a dynamic, relevant, and accessible industry.
... This will also affect the performance the company. Therefore, the (Krekel, Ward, & De Neve, 2019) the evidence presented here points to a robust, favorable link between worker satisfaction, worker output, and business performance. ...
Today’s business world has experienced rapid development. There is intense competition among fellow companies. The management system can work as a tool to improve company performance by measuring its employees’ performance. A performance measuring system is required to improve business performance. It will later function as an information provider that can be a reference for managers in making correct decisions for the company’s progress in general. This study focuses on garment companies using SEM PLS data analysis techniques, producing different results. It uses a quantitative descriptive method. It looks at the company’s performance measurement only from a financial point of view. The result showed that there is a significant beneficial impact between the TQM, employee productive behavior on company performance, and TQM on employee productive behavior. However, there is no effect of the reward system on the company’s performance. The productive behavior of employees can mediate the reward system based on company performance. Performance measurement systems can be mediated by productive employee behavior upon company performance. Employees that engage in productive behavior can mediate TQM on mediated company performance. The suggestion of the result of this research is the company can consider these research results to develop their company performance to achieve their goal. Therefore, the researchers also suggest that others conduct further research using a different method and variables that have not been studied in this study.
... Being successful at work is synonymous with being productive, and especially for employers, high productivity in turn translates to better firm performance (e.g. Krekel et al., 2019;Palia & Lichtenberg, 1999). Not only is a happy employee a productive employee, but the reverse is likely also true (e.g. ...
This paper aims to improve a well-established scale in order to provide a versatile, self-report-based, multidimensional questionnaire to approximate high-skilled labor productivity in a working-from-home context. First, I find that the original Health and Work Questionnaire problematically underperforms in a work-from-home context. As a result, a principal component analysis identifies alternative factors for a large sample of Dutch homeworkers. This improved configuration, labeled Work-from-Home Health and Work Questionnaire (WFH-HWQ), identifies five factors: productivity, productivity by others, peer relations, nonwork satisfaction, and stress and irritability. These factors improve the statistical fit and conceptual constructs over the classic HWQ factors for two separate waves of data collection. Additionally, I explore the value of single-item scales and show that they could function as alternatives for some WFH-HWQ factors, but only when done with caution and when brevity demands it. For a metric so pivotal in performance research, this productivity questionnaire aims to be easy-to-apply yet better identified than its predecessors and current alternatives. The resulting tool can be used as an alternative when objective measures of work-from-home productivity are obscured or unavailable.
... Hence, when individuals possess power they tend to have an increased ability to influence others. E. Behaviour Research has shown that power impacts the behavioural aspects [17] which extends from the everyday activities such styles of dressing and eating habits, as to behaviour with significant noteworthiness, such as organizational decisions [18] intergroup stereotyping [19], and wrongdoing behaviour [20].A rundown of the behavioural approach through research has implied that that "power is exhibited through behavioural activities" [21].The structure of the organization provides access and control over the valued assets of the organization while practices to gain and deliberately utilize those assets become prevalent.The traditional bureaucratic structure of the organization interlocks and integrates the position and the respective behaviour [2]. The individuals who are a part of such a system perform certain duties and are answerable to certain people. ...
... Further, studies have also conducted on the outcomes of wellbeing. As discussed earlier, limited studies have shown that there is a positive correlation between an employee's level of happiness and their level of performance on the job (e.g., Zheng et al., 2015;Krekel et al., 2019;Mardanov, 2020Mardanov, , 2021. Several different antecedents of happiness have been uncovered by other researchers. ...
It is devastating to people’s mental and emotional health to be exposed to the COVID-19 pandemic and the multifaceted response strategies are required to curb it. As a result of social distancing and self-isolation, people have faced many challenges in their lives. The suffering is even greater at the workplace where the employees are working with the fear of getting exposed to the virus and its new variants which is adversely affecting their wellbeing. This study explores and tests a model that extends the wellbeing research across organizational settings and targets the crucial factors that lead to job performance improvement even in the post pandemic COVID-19 situation. To improve both in-role performance and extra-role performance behaviors in the Pakistan banking sector, organizational virtue (also known as organizational virtuousness) and internal virtue (also known as emotional intelligence) are examined. Data were collected from the 416 bank employees using disproportionate stratified sampling technique. In the bank sector of Pakistan, wellbeing was identified as the key psychological factor that relates the in-role performance and extra-role performance to internal and organizational factors. Research findings also determined that conceptualizing subjective wellbeing in the context of work is more meaningful in understanding its relationship with the workplace variables than the general or global subjective wellbeing.
Background
Altering the choice architecture of decision contexts can assist behaviour change, but the acceptability of this approach has sparked debate. Considering hypothetical interventions, people generally welcome the approach for promoting health, but little evidence exists on acceptance in the real world. Furthermore, research has yet to explore the implementers’ perspective, acknowledging the multidimensionality of the acceptability construct. Addressing these knowledge gaps, this study evaluated the acceptability of a quasi-experimental implementation-effectiveness trial that modified the worksite choice architecture for healthy eating and daily physical activity.
Methods
Fifty-three worksites participated in the 12-month intervention and implemented altogether 23 choice architecture strategies (Mdn 3/site), including point-of-choice prompts and changes to choice availability or accessibility. Retrospective acceptability evaluation built on deductive qualitative content analysis of implementer interviews (n = 65) and quantitative analysis of an employee questionnaire (n = 1124). Qualitative analysis examined implementers’ thoughts and observations of the intervention and its implementation, considering six domains of the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability: ethicality, affective attitude, burden, intervention coherence, opportunity costs, and perceived effectiveness. Quantitative analysis examined employees’ acceptance (7-point Likert scale) of eight specific intervention strategies using Friedman test and mixed-effects logistic regression.
Results
Implementers considered the choice architecture approach ethical for workplace health promotion, reported mostly positive affective attitudes to and little burden because of the intervention. Intervention coherence supported acceptance through increased interest in implementation, whereas low perceived utility and high intensity of implementation reduced cost acceptance. Perceived effectiveness was mixed and varied along factors related to the implementer, social/physical work environment, employer, and employee. Employees showed overall high acceptance of evaluated strategies (Mdn 7, IQR 6.4–7), though strategies replacing unhealthy foods with healthier alternatives appeared less supported than providing information or enhancing healthy option availability or accessibility (p-values < 0.02). Greater proportion of male employees per site predicted lower overall acceptance (OR 4.4, 95% CI 1.2–16.5).
Conclusions
Work communities appear to approve workplace choice architecture interventions for healthy eating and physical activity, but numerous factors influence acceptance and warrant consideration in future interventions. The study contributes with a theory-based, multidimensional evaluation that considered the perspectives of implementers and influenced individuals across heterogeneous real-world settings.
While some labour policies bring dignity to a particular group of employees, other labour policies are purported to be major driving force behind accelerated well-being vulnerability of some employees. However, there is lull in literature about the relationship between employment equity amendments and workforce well-being. With a void of information on the relationship between labour regulations and workforce well-being, it is within this background that this paper sought to investigate the influence of labour policies on workforce well-being with specific attention given to employment equity amendments. Thus, the paper fills a significant lacuna in the literature. The sample for this paper was equated to 226 small and medium enterprises in South Africa. This paper adopted a quantitative research approach, a simple random sampling technique was employed to select a sample in which computer-generated random numbers were utilised in selecting the sample. From the overall viewpoint of the findings, the study indicated that some policies encourage workforce wellbeing while other policies thwarts workforce wellbeing of small and medium enterprises. The study gave a unique work environment perspective which had not been explored before in respect of the impact of amendments to Employment Equity legislation and hence adds significant value.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to analyze the potential mediating role of employee engagement in the relationship between gratitude and subjective well-being (SWB) of employees working in the information technology (IT) sector in India. The study investigated a moderated mediation model for gratitude and SWB, treating employee engagement as a mediator and gender as a moderator.
Design/methodology/approach
Data was collected from 162 professionals working IT sector in India. Process Macro, AMOS and IBM SPSS 22 were used to analyze the mediation and moderation effects.
Findings
The results depicted that employee engagement fully mediates the positive association between gratitude practice and the SWB of employees as well as the demographic variable; gender also demonstrated a full moderation effect between them.
Originality/value
This research may be one of the few studies from the Indian context that explore whether gratitude practiced by employees working in the IT sector can play a significant role in impacting their SWB. Past research models had not introduced employee engagement’s indirect impact on the examined variables.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to gain more understanding of how competence might matter from the perspective of well-being at work. The authors explore how perceived competence is connected to perceived work-related well-being among Baby Boomer, Generation X and Generation Y employees.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors explore how perceived competence is connected to perceived work-related well-being among Baby Boomer, Generation X and Generation Y employees. The frames of reference of the study are based on literature on employee well-being (measured with work engagement and overcommitment) and competence, as well as on generational discussions. The quantitative, questionnaire-based study was conducted in 88 companies in Finland, with the total number of respondents being 4,418.
Findings
The main finding was that perceived competence related to current duties is statistically significantly connected to employee well-being. The results indicate that high competence results in high employee well-being in all generational groups. Further, Generation Y estimated their work well-being, both in terms of work engagement and overcommitment, lower than Baby Boomers or Generation X. The results suggest that developing competence of employees in organizations seems to be an important means to also support work well-being. It is especially important to pay attention to that among Generation Y, who take their first steps in working life. Competence is a meaningful factor for coping in working life in continually changing work environments. Incompetence is not just a factor for poor performance but also a potential threat to employee well-being.
Originality/value
Most of the competence/workplace learning results research concentrates on cognitive competence and skills, often from the employers’ benefit viewpoint (useful skills, productivity increase). This study starts from the finding that new generations of workers rather look for a meaningful work life, and thus, a feeling of having the necessary competences directly improves their well-being and, thus, life quality. Furthermore, the study is based on an original questionnaire-based study conducted in 88 companies in Finland, with the total number of respondents being 4,418.
Vulnerability to poverty (VTP) is the downside risk of falling into poverty over a specified time horizon. Here, we investigate the links from VTP and mental health, using a panel from rural Vietnam. VTP has a significant and adverse connection with an index of depression with coefficients that are not only statistically significant but indicate a large impact. A rise of VTP from zero to one is linked to a 3.3 unit increase in the depression (CES-D) score (or 47.1 percent increase over the sample mean). VTP also increases the probability of being severely mentally distressed. An increase in VTP of one standard deviation is associated on average with a 10.5 percentage point increase in the probability of severe mental distress. We break down the source of risk into shocks idiosyncratic to the household (e.g. death of a family member) and co-shared risks (e.g. village flooding). Risks of poverty that come from idiosyncratic shocks have stronger links to mental health than risks from shared shocks. Additionally, VTP increases the likelihood of depressive symptoms more for men than for women (though women report higher mental distress scores on average) and for the major ethnicity group compared to other ethnicities. Overall, the study offers evidence that lives marked by greater downside risk are also affected with higher rates of depressive symptoms.
This paper is based on a study that was conducted to examine the influence of supportive leadership style on organizational performance of manufacturing SMEs in Nairobi County, Kenya. Guided by the path goal leadership theory, the study employed use of a positivism research philosophy and descriptive correlational research design to determine the relationship between the two variables. The study targeted listed SME members of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers comprising 425 managers/owners of the organizations in Nairobi region. A sample size of 369 managers/owners was obtained from the population through stratified random sampling of the manufacturing SMEs. Data collection was done using self-administered questionnaires with a follow up analysis using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The descriptive statistics included mean, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis while inferential statistics included Pearson’s correlation, chi-square and binary logistic regression. Binary logistic regression (Cox and Snell R squared) showed a 12 % probability of organizational performance being explained by adoption of supportive leadership style. The study indicated a significantly positive relationship between supportive leadership style and organizational performance (β= 4.114, p = .000, p < 0.05) rejecting the null hypothesis “Supportive leadership style does not influence organizational performance in manufacturing SMEs in Nairobi.” The study therefore concludes that supportive leadership style significantly influenced performance of manufacturing SMEs in Nairobi County. These findings provide a new understanding to the owners/managers of manufacturing SMEs on how supportive leadership impacts on organizational performance. Nonetheless, the study recommends further research in a wider context of SMEs in Kenya taking note of demographic features and the use of a longitudinal approach in conducting the study.
This paper aims to perform a systematic review and meta-analytic investigation of previous empirical studies by examining and synthesizing the strength of the association between psychological capital and subjective well-being and try to understand the heterogeneity across the studies by potential moderators. Electronic searches of literature on psychological capital and subjective well-being were performed via Scopus, google scholar, web of Science, research gate, etc., and SLR was done as per PRISMA guidelines. The random-effect model was used to compute necessary statistics like effect size, moderating effects, publication bias, and heterogeneity in the meta-essential program. Findings of this meta-analytic study revealed a large, significant, and positive correlation between psychological capital and subjective well-being (r=0.53; k= 42; 95% CI= 0.47-0.59; P< 0.001). The effect size varied in the presence of moderators. This meta-analytic examination overcomes the research heterogeneity by synthesizing the correlation of all individual studies on psychological capital and subjective well-being to produce the correct and precise academic conclusion which will help further in the development of new hypotheses. One of the major limitations of this meta-analytic study is that it has utilized only empirical and quantitative studies. Further, all studies were collected only from a few databases electronic searches like Google scholars, research gate, web of science, Scopus, etc. which resulted in a limited number study for the analysis. The findings of this Meta-analysis make some administrative recommendations for recognizing the importance of psychological capital to improve the subjective well-being of employees. Accordingly, the organization will either recruit employees having psychological capital/ resources or train them to acquire or enhance psycap with the motive to maintain higher SWB.
Drawing upon the dynamic capabilities approach, this research examined the impact of innovation capabilities on market performance. Innovation capabilities are widely acknowledged as critical ingredients of entrepreneurial performance. Consequently, there has been a plethora of research work on this concept. However, owing to the multifaceted nature of innovation capability as a construct, there has been increased calls for more research on this concept. Hence, this study adopted the survey method and collected data from 170 managers from the Zimbabwean Telecoms sector. Results, analysed using Structural Equation Modelling, revealed the significant direct impact of participatory leadership culture and individual activity on market performance. Individual activity partially mediated the relationship between participatory leadership culture and market performance. However, no mediation was found between work climate and well-being and market performance. This study contributes to the innovation literature by examining the mediating mechanisms through which innovation capabilities enhance firm-level performance. Finally, the research extends the innovation literature by validating the link between innovation capabilities and market performance.
The Covid-19 pandemic has altered the way the industry operates, including customer service. As one of the determinants of customer satisfaction, customer service also became a critical key indicator for Indonesian online marketplaces. The purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of employee well-being on job performance and the mediation role of the promotive voice. Data gathered from 256 employees from various Indonesian online marketplaces was tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results indicate psychological well-being significantly affect job performance, while physical well-being and social well-being do not significantly affect job performance. In addition, complementary mediation found out from the promotive voice on the effect of psychological well-being on job performance.
The study aims to examine the effect of employee loyalty on job performance in Bahrain. Further, it investigates the mediating effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between employee loyalty and job performance. One hundred two participants employed by Zain company were selected through an online convenience sampling technique. The study chose Zain, a telecommunication company in Bahrain, due to easy access to employees, interest in studying company culture/methods, collaboration opportunities , and Zain's reputation for innovation. SmartPLS4 was used to investigate potential correlations between employee loyalty and job performance and how job satisfaction indirectly affects employee loyalty and job performance. Findings show that employee loyalty significantly influences job performance and job satisfaction. Further, job satisfaction is significantly associated with job performance. In terms of mediating effect, the study found that job satisfaction significantly influences the relationship between employee loyalty and job performance. Every variable studied had an impact on job performance. As a result, the current study's hypotheses are all confirmed. The model of the study is well fit, as the R-square is greater than 51%. The main contribution of this study is the insight that job satisfaction is a substantial mediator of the relationship between employee loyalty and job performance. Through theoretical and practical contributions, this study offers valuable implications that might benefit managers at companies, including Zain company, as well as interested readers and researchers. Ali Ateeq (Kingdom of Bahrain), Mohammed Alzoraiki (Kingdom of Bahrain), Marwan Milhem (Kingdom of Bahrain), Mujeeb Al-Absy (Kingdom of Bahrain) Impact of employee loyalty on job performance: Mediating role of job satisfaction on the example of Zain company, Bahrain
The main purpose of this study is to examine the impact of human resource management practices on employee performance. Specially the objective of this study are as follows (1) to determine the impact of human resource management practices: (a) training and development, (b) rewards and compensation, (c) performance appraisal, (d) employee empowerment, and (e) job design on employee performance in the public sector organization of Oman. (2) to explore the moderating impact of organizational politics on the relationship between human resource management practices: (a) training and development, (b) rewards and compensation, (c) performance appraisal, (d) employee empowerment, and (e) job design on employee performance in the public sector organization of Oman. The target respondent is employee who are currently working on public sector in Oman.
What produces a happy society and a happy life? Thanks to the new science of wellbeing, we can now answer this question using state-of-the-art empirical evidence. This transforms our ability to base our decisions on the outcomes that matter most, namely the wellbeing of us all including future generations. Written by two of the world's leading experts on the economics of wellbeing, this book shows how wellbeing can be measured, what causes it and how it can be improved. Its findings are profoundly relevant to all social sciences, including psychology, economics, politics, behavioural science and sociology. A field-defining text on a new science that aims to span the whole of human life, this will be an invaluable resource for undergraduate and graduate students, policy-makers and employers, who can apply its insights in their professional and private lives. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
The workplace has experienced extensive digital transformation, in part due to artificial intelligence's commercial availability. Though still an emerging technology, emotional artificial intelligence (EAI) is increasingly incorporated into enterprise systems to augment and automate organizational decisions and to monitor and manage workers. EAI use is often celebrated for its potential to improve workers' wellbeing and performance as well as address organizational problems such as bias and safety. Workers subject to EAI in the workplace are data subjects whose data make EAI possible and who are most impacted by it. However, we lack empirical knowledge about data subjects' perspectives on EAI, including in the workplace. To this end, using a relational ethics lens, we qualitatively analyzed 395 U.S. adults' open-ended survey (partly representative) responses regarding the perceived benefits and risks they associate with being subjected to EAI in the workplace. While participants acknowledged potential benefits of being subject to EAI (e.g., employers using EAI to aid their wellbeing, enhance their work environment, reduce bias), a myriad of potential risks overshadowed perceptions of potential benefits. Participants expressed concerns regarding the potential for EAI use to harm their wellbeing, work environment and employment status, and create and amplify bias and stigma against them, especially the most marginalized (e.g., along dimensions of race, gender, mental health status, disability). Distrustful of EAI and its potential risks, participants anticipated conforming to (e.g., partaking in emotional labor) or refusing (e.g., quitting a job) EAI implementation in practice. We argue that EAI may magnify, rather than alleviate, existing challenges data subjects face in the workplace and suggest that some EAI-inflicted harms would persist even if concerns of EAI's accuracy and bias are addressed.
Sustainable production is proposed to guide manufacturers in achieving sustainable development goals. Although previous studies have developed diverse metaheuristics algorithms in finding the optimal method for balancing economic and environmental aspects, the social aspect is still omitted. In addressing this shortcoming, this study attempts to design a hybrid metaheuristic algorithm to balance economic performance with social expectations by matching the employees’ characteristics with those of a job shop. This study contributes to (1) confirming the importance of considering the social aspect for strengthening the theoretical basis; (2) proposing a hybrid metaheuristic algorithm in matching employees’ characteristics with the job shop; and (3) utilizing the optimal scenario leads the related firms in practicing sustainable production. The findings indicate that matching the employee-job-shop can fulfill the social expectation for generating positive effects on economic performance. If manufacturers insist on lowering labor costs, it may have a negative impact on production efficiency.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe impact on employees’ well-being and business outcomes throughout the world. The purpose of the present study was to develop a short measure of well-being to identify vulnerable employees. The Emotional Resilience Scale (ERS) was validated in a longitudinal design, using a sample of 193 participants. Results revealed high internal and test-retest reliability. Factor Analysis showed that the ERS is best viewed as unidimensional. The ERS exhibited a strong association with the mental health continuum (short form) measure, and moderate associations with emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. Implications and limitations for future research are discussed.
The presented doctoral thesis is titled “Augmenting Psychological Well-being using Artificial Intelligence: Reflections on Workplace Productivity”. It offers insight into how technology can be used to support psychological health. This study makes use of Healthcare IoT (IoMT) and Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) to fulfill the same. The study, with its interdisciplinary approach, focuses on the augmentation of psychosomatic health using A.I. and considers its impact on an individual to extend reflections on organizational performance. Health is an essential component of life. We take care of physical health, but mental health is usually taken for granted where it must be given the same care and importance. Psychosomatic health is nothing but a holistic reflection of both the physical and mental health of an individual. As per the pilot study, the root causes of the same are related to events relating to workplaces, finances, and relationships. As studies indicate, stress, anxiety, and depression are the signs of degrading mental health; considering service research priorities, the presented research empirically explores the impact of positive emotions on psychological well-being. Observing the complexity of neural constructs, Artificial Intelligence is deployed to be able to gain valuable insights. At the same time, keeping a managerial point of view in research reflects on co-created value in an organization achieved through a person’s well-being. Literature suggests that seeking therapy may be the only option while dealing with psychological issues, but it could be a time-consuming, expensive process with limited access to society. We do have technologies that have advanced over the last few decades but are mainly focused on supporting physical health. The presented study offers insight into how it can be used to support psychological health in the form of Machine Learning. The study reflects on EEG retrieved in the form of brain signals. Based on the adaption of research design termed as ‘Sequential Mixed Method,’ the study extends its application from the personal to a professional arena for enhancing workplace productivity. Research design includes experiments with predictive analytics and drives discussions using Qualitative and Quantitative data. Based on the information retrieved from the subjects - captured through a BCI and a survey questionnaire, a Machine Learning (ML) model was developed. In this study, we hypothesize that such treatment protocol can accelerate treatments by therapists for the betterment of Psychosomatic health. Not only that, but the use of the ML model can also offer greater scalability in reaching out to the masses for greater access. The well-being achieved can positively reflect on the individual. Through a comprehensive view, it would support a person in improving their personal and professional life. Ultimately given study suggests that the well-being achieved could further impact organizations, enhancing their overall performance as validated in the presented thesis. The contribution of this study was the interlinking of interdisciplinary domains such as Management - Technology and Healthcare. Also, this study uniquely utilized Data science due to the large size of the dataset that is collected in this study.
The achievement of any organisation, is a contributing factor towards the increase employee satisfaction and motivation toward productivity. Further, productivity is mostly affected over, employee satisfaction and motivation. In a finding, high level employee satisfaction and motivation will impact positively on organisation productivity. From the results of this literature review, Motivated employees is more likely to have job satisfaction and that increase organisation productivity. It follows, then employees will put hard work when sensed satisfy and motivated, will result in organisation objective. Therefore, there is a strong relationship between employee satisfaction, motivation, and organisation productivity. The aim of the study is to analyse the relationship between employee satisfaction and motivation and the affect overall organisation productivity.
Diseases of the circulatory system are leading causes of death, which compel stakeholders to lessen cardiovascular risks by utilising more effective prevention. These risks can be estimated based on gender, age, smoker status, systolic blood pressure, and total cholesterol. Artificial neural networks enable modelling of 10-year cardiovascular mortality rates. Understandable communica-tion of potential gains in life expectancy may enhance health consciousness through mitigating behavioural risks. The reproduction of death statistics requires the adjustment of the recommended probabilities for the occurrence of fatal cardiovascular events. This study deals with countries at high and low cardiovascular risk, selecting Hungary and the Czech Republic (high risk) and Austria (low risk). In Hungary, the gains in life expectancy are (43.4 – 36.2 =) 7.21 years for fe-males and (37.4 – 28.0 =) 9.4 years for males, both aged 40. These figures moderate to (21.2 – 15.6 =) 5.72 and (17.1 – 11.3 =) 5.8 years for elderly people aged 65, respectively. The Czech Republic represents an interim phase between the two other countries regarding ad-vancement in life expectancy, the respective gains exceed the Hungarian values: (45.8 – 37.8 =) 8.0, (39.7 – 29.7 =) 10.0, (23.0 – 16.6 =) 6.4, and (18.2 – 12.3 =) 5.9 years. In contrast, a 40-year-old woman may benefit from an additional (46.6 – 41.3 =) 5.3 years in Austria, while the corresponding accrual for men is (42.3 – 35.7 =) 6.6 years. On reaching 65 years, the increment is (23.4 – 19.3 =) 4.1 and (20.0 – 16.1 =) 3.9 years.
Well-being is an essential human need and has social, psychological and economic benefits. Consequently, social scientists and economists, in particular, want to know whether economic reform can lead to increased (and sustainable) happiness. To answer this question, we applied a new approach—investigating the effect of economic reform programmes on national well-being for 154 countries between 2005 and 2018. As the dependent variable, we employed national subjective well-being scores based on people’s evaluation of their satisfaction with life. International Monetary Fund economic reform programmes provided a sufficiently long time–series and global presence for the main independent variable. We used a treatment effect model and fixed-effects instrumental variable panel with the novel approach of synthetic instruments, to address selection bias generated by the non-random selection of countries into International Monetary Fund programme participation, also controlling for unobservable characteristics influencing both International Monetary Fund participation and national well-being. Irrespective of the approach used, empirical findings show that economic reform programmes lead to increased national well-being globally, both in the short-term and the long-term. The results do not imply that International Monetary Fund arrangements should be used as policy tools to increase national well-being. They empirically confirm our argument that improvements in national economies sustaining increased well-being require intentional effort and engagement.
This paper accords productivity growth and enhanced resident well-being more prominent roles in the study of tourism destination performance than they are offered in current research. Not only is productivity analysis essential to addressing the challenges associated with enhancing residents’ material well-being, but it displays substantial promise as a guide for an important research agenda in tourism embracing wider quality-of-life and sustainability issues. A framework is proposed to provide the basis for a research and policy agenda linking productivity, well-being outcomes, and destination sustainable development.
PURPOSE: Discussing tendencies and shortcomings in the current debate on promoting decent work in hospitality and tourism, this study aims to respond to recent calls for progress on improving employee well-being. It proposes elements of a productivity-based strategy embedded in a circular dynamic linking productivity, service quality, profitability and job quality to enhance tourism employees’ well-being in view of achieving Sustainable Development Goal 8 on decent work.
DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH:
Drawing on recent empirical work on gift exchange theory, this viewpoint article presents a possible scenario that should stimulate debate among scholars and local policymakers of how decent work and quality of life can be achieved in traditional tourism destinations. This would fill a gap in the current debate, which focuses on quantitatively marginal alternative forms of tourism, to overcome problems inherent to growth-based tourism.
FINDINGS:
This contribution proposes a productivity-based development strategy supported by an incentive regulation policy targeting employers who provide tourist services in mass tourism destinations, promoting job quality to raise productivity and enhance service quality and in the end profitability.
ORIGINALITY/VALUE:
This short article proposes a new perspective on promoting decent work in traditional tourism destinations based on gift exchange theory and discusses the scope for research essential to support a development based on the scenario described by a circular model.
This article uses linked employer–employee data to investigate the relationship between employees’ subjective well-being and workplace performance in Britain. The analyses show a clear, positive and statistically significant relationship between the average level of job satisfaction at the workplace and workplace performance. The relationship is present in both cross-sectional and panel analyses and is robust to various estimation methods and model specifications. In contrast, we find no association between levels of job-related affect and workplace performance. Ours is the first study of its kind for Britain to use nationally representative data and it provides novel findings regarding the importance of worker job satisfaction in explaining workplace performance. The findings suggest that there is a prima facie case for employers to maintain and raise levels of job satisfaction among their employees. They also indicate that initiatives to raise aggregate job satisfaction should feature in policy discussions around how to improve levels of productivity and growth.
There is evidence, spanning many decades of research, that the subjective well-being (SWB) of workers, including life satisfaction, job satisfaction, and positive affect, positively correlates with the performance of workers and organizations. However, the size of the relationships is typically small to moderate. In this review we address the question of why the relationships are not stronger. We first review evidence of a relationship moving from well-being to performance through various pathways. Workers who are high in SWB are now understood to have: 1. better health, 2. lower absenteeism, 3. greater self-regulation, 4. stronger motivation, 5. enhanced creativity, 6. positive relationships, and 7. lower turnover. Each of these variables can predict individual and organizational performance. However, the sheer number of known and possible pathways means the relationships are bound to be complex, and there are mitigating conditions at every turn. Thus, second, we review the evidence of moderators of these mediators, hypothesizing when a happier workforce is a more productive one, and when not. Future research is needed to firmly establish the pathways from different types of SWB through the mediators to metrics of performance, to further establish the moderating conditions in which these relations are most likely to occur, and to evaluate how much SWB is needed to maximize effectiveness. We end by urging scholars to conduct this future research using the highest standards of scientific integrity.
The current study used meta-analytic estimates and path analysis to examine whether the construct of employee engagement (EE) shows incremental validity in the prediction of employee effectiveness (a broad measure of performance-related behaviors) over other job attitudes such as job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment. Meta-analytic estimates between EE and various employee effectiveness indicators were computed from 49 published correlations representing a total of 22,090 individuals. We combined these estimates with published meta-analytic estimates between employee effectiveness and job attitudes to produce a meta-matrix representing 1,161 unique correlations. Using this meta-matrix, a series of path model comparisons produced two results: (1) EE bears low to moderate incremental validity over individual job attitudes (R 2 change of 0.02 to 0.06), and (2) EE bears low incremental validity over a higher-order job attitude construct representing the combination of other job attitudes in the prediction of a higher-order employee effectiveness construct (R 2 change of 0.01). Given the brevity of popular EE measures, the results suggest EE is better conceptualized as a higher-order measure of job attitudes that is an effective and concise predictor of employee effectiveness.
This study tests a central theoretical assumption of stress process and job strain models, namely that increases in employees’ control and support at work should promote well-being. To do so, we use a group-randomized field trial with longitudinal data from 867 information technology (IT) workers to investigate the well-being effects of STAR, an organizational intervention designed to promote greater employee control over work time and greater supervisor support for workers’ personal lives. We also offer a unique analysis of an unexpected field effect—a company merger—among workers surveyed earlier versus later in the study period, before or after the merger announcement. We find few STAR effects for the latter group, but over 12 months, STAR reduced burnout, perceived stress, and psychological distress, and increased job satisfaction, for the early survey group. STAR effects are partially mediated by increases in schedule control and declines in family-to-work conflict and burnout (an outcome and mediator) by six months. Moderating effects show that STAR benefits women in reducing psychological distress and perceived stress, and increases non-supervisory employees’ job satisfaction. This study demonstrates, with a rigorous design, that organizational-level initiatives can promote employee well-being.
Objective:
To explore the link between companies investing in the health and well-being programs of their employees and stock market performance.
Methods:
Stock performance of C. Everett Koop National Health Award winners (n = 26) was measured over time and compared with the average performance of companies comprising the Standard and Poor's (S&P) 500 Index.
Results:
The Koop Award portfolio outperformed the S&P 500 Index. In the 14-year period tracked (2000-2014), Koop Award winners' stock values appreciated by 325% compared with the market average appreciation of 105%.
Conclusions:
This study supports prior and ongoing research demonstrating a higher market valuation-an affirmation of business success by Wall Street investors-of socially responsible companies that invest in the health and well-being of their workers when compared with other publicly traded firms.
The search for causal links between human resource management (HRM) and organisational performance has dominated academic and practitioner debates for many years. However, much of this work comes from contexts outside health care and/or the UK.
Objectives
This study tested the later stages of a well-established HRM model, testing whether or not there was evidence of causal links between staff experience and intermediate (staff) and final (patient and organisational) outcomes, and whether or not these differed in parts of the NHS. We used large-scale longitudinal secondary data sets in order to answer these questions in a thorough way.
Data sources
Searches were conducted using Health Management Information Consortium, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Social Sciences Citation Index and EBSCO
host
(from inception to May 2012).
Methods
Staff experience data came from the national NHS staff surveys of 2009, 2010 and 2011, with trust-level measures of staff absenteeism, turnover, patient satisfaction, mortality and infection rates gathered from the same NHS years. Several analytical methods were used, including multilevel analysis, mediated regression, latent growth curve modelling and cross-lagged correlation analysis.
Results
In general, the pattern was that better staff experiences are associated with better outcomes for employees and patients. Multilevel analysis found that the positive effects of staff perceiving equal opportunities on employee outcomes were especially strong, as were the negative effects of aggression and discrimination. Organisational-level analysis showed that better staff experiences (particularly those associated with better well-being and better job design, and more positive attitudes about the organisation generally) were linked to lower levels of absenteeism and greater patient satisfaction. There was some evidence that the relationship with absenteeism is causal, although the causal link with patient satisfaction was less clear-cut. Some relationships between staff experience and turnover, and some between staff experience and patient mortality, were also found (and a few with infection rates), with longitudinal analysis comparatively unclear about the direction of causality. Although many staff experiences were associated with absenteeism and patient satisfaction, these effects were not mediated and the reason staff experiences are linked to patient satisfaction appears to be separate from the link with absenteeism. In general, there is no single group of staff (or geographical region) for which staff experiences are the most important. However, nurses’ experiences generally had the strongest effects on absenteeism, followed by medical/dental staff. Few clear or explainable patterns for other staff group effects were found. Absenteeism was most readily predicted by staff experience in the West Midlands. Two Action Learning Sets of managers, and patient and public involvement representatives broadly supported the emerging findings of the factors that seemed to be important indicators of staff satisfaction and organisational outcomes.
Limitations
The relatively blunt nature of the data used meant that conclusions about the direction of causality were less clear. More specific limitations included that we had to limit outcome variables to those that were available already, that many variables were available for acute trusts, and that we could not break down data further within trusts or years.
Conclusions
Overall, the research confirmed many expected links between staff experiences and outcomes, providing support for that part of the overall HRM model in the NHS. However, conclusions about the direction of causality were less clear (except for absenteeism). This is probably due in part to the relatively blunt nature of the data used. Future research may involve the careful evaluation of interventions designed to improve staff experience on more specific groups of staff, and the continued use of secondary data sources, such as those used in this report, to answer more specific, theoretically driven questions.
Funding
The National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research programme.
A revolution in the science of emotion has emerged in recent decades, with the potential to create a paradigm shift in decision theories. The research reveals that emotions constitute potent, pervasive, predictable, sometimes harmful and sometimes beneficial drivers of decision making. Across different domains, important regularities appear in the mechanisms through which emotions influence judgments and choices. We organize and analyze what has been learned from the past 35 years of work on emotion and decision making. In so doing, we propose the emotion-imbued choice model, which accounts for inputs from traditional rational choice theory and from newer emotion research, synthesizing scientific models. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology Volume 66 is November 30, 2014. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/catalog/pubdates.aspx for revised estimates.
The present research builds theory regarding how use of flexible work practices (FWPs) affects employees' career success. We integrate theory on signaling and attributions and propose that managers interpret employees' use of FWPs as a signal of high or low organizational commitment, depending on whether managers make productivity or personal life attributions, respectively, for employees' FWP use. Managers' perceptions of employees' commitment, in turn, shape employees' career success. Field- and laboratory-based studies provide strong support for the hypothesis that FWP use results in career premiums when managers make productivity attributions and some support for the hypothesis that FWP use results in career penalties when managers make personal life attributions.
This study provides a comparative test of two psychological theories concerning the relationship between affect and performance. Managerial simulations are used to test whether people who are positive in disposition perform better or worse on both decisional and interpersonal tasks. Results are consistent in supporting the happier-and-smarter as opposed to the sadder-but-wiser hypothesis, since they show positive relationships between dispositional affect and performance. The results are discussed in terms of their relevance to both the older literature on links between satisfaction and performance and the more recent controversy over the dispositional approach to job attitudes.
The question of whether there is a connection between income and psychological well-being is a long-studied issue across the social, psychological, and behavioral sciences. Much research has found that richer people tend to be happier. However, relatively little attention has been paid to whether happier individuals perform better financially in the first place. This possibility of reverse causality is arguably understudied. Using data from a large US representative panel, we show that adolescents and young adults who report higher life satisfaction or positive affect grow up to earn significantly higher levels of income later in life. We focus on earnings approximately one decade after the person's well-being is measured; we exploit the availability of sibling clusters to introduce family fixed effects; we account for the human capacity to imagine later socioeconomic outcomes and to anticipate the resulting feelings in current well-being. The study's results are robust to the inclusion of controls such as education, intelligence quotient, physical health, height, self-esteem, and later happiness. We consider how psychological well-being may influence income. Sobel-Goodman mediation tests reveal direct and indirect effects that carry the influence from happiness to income. Significant mediating pathways include a higher probability of obtaining a college degree, getting hired and promoted, having higher degrees of optimism and extraversion, and less neuroticism.
Comments on the original article, "The meaning of employee engagement" by W. H. Macey and B. Schneider (see record
2010-13366-002), which provides an informative treatise on the psychological construct of employee engagement. In recent years, the term "employee engagement" has taken on a life of its own, probably based, in part, on its resonance as a term describing a deeper level of involvement and enthusiasm from the employee than the terms "job satisfaction" or "organizational commitment" might imply. In this commentary, the current authors suggest Macey and Schneider’s paper is based on an implicit assumption that may not hold true: If they and other researchers can make a logical or conceptual distinction between constructs or measures, then this distinction will exist in the minds of employees or respondents to surveys. The area of job-related attitudes may be an excellent example of the kind of construct proliferation that can cause industrial–organizational (I–O) psychology and organizational behavior to be major violators of the mandate for parsimony in science. The ability of I–O psychologists to create a wide variety of conceptual distinctions—many quite subtle—leading to a proliferation of proposed constructs (the jangle fallacy cited by Macey and Schneider [2008]) seems quite expansive. Macey and Schneider’s paper is a well-intentioned attempt to deal with this problem but is based on an implicit assumption that substantial new evidence suggests is false. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Reviews research in psychology, sociology, and organizational behavior to develop a conceptual framework that specifies how positive emotion (PE) helps employees obtain favorable outcomes at work. It is proposed that feeling and expressing PEs on the job have favorable consequences on (1) employees, independent of their relationships with others (e.g., greater persistence); (2) reactions of others to employees (e.g., "halo," or overgeneralization to other desirable traits); and (3) reactions of employees to others (e.g., helping others). Results from an 18-mo study of 272 employees indicate that PE on the job at Time 1 is associated with evidence of work achievement (more favorable supervisor evaluations and higher pay) and a supportive social context (more support from supervisors and coworkers) at Time 2. PE at Time 1 is not significantly associated with job enrichment at Time 2. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Most theories of affective influences on judgement and choice take a valence-based approach, contrasting the effects of positive versus negative feeling states. These approaches have not specified if and when distinct emotions of the same valence have different effects on judgement. In this article, we propose a model of emotion-specific influences on judgement and choice. We posit that each emotion is defined by a tendency to perceive new events and objects in ways that are consistent with the original cognitive-appraisal dimensions of the emotion. To pit the valence and appraisal-tendency approaches against one another, we present a study that addresses whether two emotions of the same valence but differing appraisals—anger and fear—relate in different ways to risk perception. Consistent with the appraisal-tendency hypothesis, fearful people made pessimistic judgements of future events whereas angry people made optimistic judgements. In the Discussion we expand the proposed model and review evidence supporting two social moderators of appraisal-tendency processes.
This study explored how affect relates to creativity at work. Using both quantitative and qualitative longitudinal data from the daily diaries of 222 employees in seven companies, we examined the nature, form, and temporal dynamics of the affect-creativity relationship. The results indicate that positive affect relates positively to creativity in organizations and that the relationship is a simple linear one. Time-lagged analyses identify positive affect as an antecedent of creative thought, with incubation periods of up to two days. Qualitative analyses identify positive affect as a consequence of creative thought events, as well as a concomitant of the creative process. A preliminary theory of the affect-creativity cycle in organizations includes each of these links and proposes mechanisms by which they may operate.
Perceptions of work conditions have proven to be important to the well-being of workers. However, customer loyalty, employee retention, revenue, sales, and profit are essential to the success of any business. It is known that these outcomes are correlated with employee attitudes and perceptions of work conditions, but the research into direction of causality has been inconclusive. Using a massive longitudinal database that included 2,178 business units in 10 large organizations, we found evidence supporting the causal impact of employee perceptions on these bottom-line measures; reverse causality of bottom-line measures on employee perceptions existed but was weaker. Managerial actions and practices can impact employee work conditions and employee perceptions of these conditions, thereby improving key outcomes at the organizational level. Perceptions of specific work conditions that engage employees in their work provide practical guidance in how best to manage people to obtain desired results.
© The Author(s) 2010.
We test the wealth maximization theory of quitting behavior on the German Socioeconomic Panel (1985–2003). With the interpretation of job satisfaction as an expression of the experienced preference for the present job against available alternatives, the propensity to stay in the present job is simply related to the residual of a job satisfaction equation. We show that this residual is a better predictor of quits than the overall level of satisfaction. Furthermore, we validate a dynamic extension of the economic theory of quits for which uncertainty in the expectation of future events plays a decisive role.
Drawing on the compatibility principle in attitude theory, we propose that overall job attitude (job satisfaction and organizational commitment) provides increasingly powerful prediction of more integrative behavioral criteria (focal performance, contextual performance, lateness, absence, and turnover combined). The principle was sustained by a combination of meta-analysis and structural equations showing better fit of unified versus diversified models of meta-analytic correlations between those criteria. Overall job attitude strongly predicted a higher-order behavioral construct, defined as desirable contributions made to one's work role (r = .59). Time-lagged data also supported this unified, attitude-engagement model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Academy of Management Journal is the property of Academy of Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
We investigate the turnover effects of an organizational innovation (ROWE-Results Only Work Environment) aimed at moving away from standard time practices to focus on results rather than time spent at work. To model rates of turnover, we draw on survey data from a sample of employees at a corporate headquarters (N = 775) and institutional records of turnover over eight months following the ROWE implementation. We find the odds of turnover are indeed lower for employees participating in the ROWE initiative, which offers employees greater work-time control and flexibility, and that this is the case regardless of employees' gender, age, or family life stage. ROWE also moderates the turnover effects of organizational tenure and negative home-to-work spillover, physical symptoms, and job insecurity, with those in ROWE who report these situations generally less likely to leave the organization. Additionally, ROWE reduces turnover intentions among those remaining with the corporation. This research moves the "opting-out" argument from one of private troubles to an issue of greater employee work-time control and flexibility by showing that an organizational policy initiative can reduce turnover.
Evidence shows that real-effort investments can affect bilateral bargaining outcomes. This paper investigates whether similar investments can inhibit equilibrium convergence of experimental markets. In one treatment, sellers’ relative effort affects the allocation of production costs, but a random productivity shock ensures that the allocation is not necessarily equitable. In another treatment, sellers’ effort increases the buyers’ valuation of a good. We find that effort investments have a short-lived impact on trading behavior when sellers’ effort benefits buyers, but no effect when effort determines cost allocation. Efficiency rates are high and do not differ across treatments.
This article uses seven waves of panel data to test for social norms in labor market status. The unemployed's well-being is shown to be strongly positively correlated with reference group unemployment (at the regional, partner, or household level). This result, far stronger for men, is robust to controls for unobserved individual heterogeneity. Panel data also show that those whose well-being fell the most on entering unemployment are less likely to remain unemployed. These findings suggest a psychological explanation of both unemployment polarization and hysteresis, based on the utility effects of a changing employment norm in the reference group.
This study uses nationally representative panel survey data for Australia to identify the role played by mismatches between hours actually worked and working time preferences in contributing to reported levels of job and life satisfaction. Three main conclusions emerge. First, it is not the number of hours worked that matters for subjective well-being, but working time mismatch. Second, overemployment is a more serious problem than is underemployment. Third, while the magnitude of the impact of overemployment may seem small in absolute terms, relative to other variables, such as disability, the effect is quite large. Copyright (c) Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2009.
Despite extensive research on the subject spanning over 70 years, uncertainty still remains as to whether happier workers are in fact more productive. This study combined longitudinal prospective and experience sampling methods to examine the relationship between happiness and self-reported productivity among Directors employed in the public and private sectors. Analyses at a trait level suggested happy people were more productive. Similarly, at the state level of analysis, people were more productive when they were happier. Among the happiness indicators examined (job satisfaction, quality of work life, life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect) positive affect was most strongly, but not exclusively, tied to productivity at both the state and trait levels. Discussion focuses on reconciling a long history of mixed findings regarding the happy-productive worker thesis.
Based on 7,939 business units in 36 companies, this study used meta-analysis to examine the relationship at the business-unit level between employee satisfaction-engagement and the business-unit outcomes of customer satisfaction, productivity, profit, employee turnover, and accidents. Generalizable relationships large enough to have substantial practical value were found between unit-level employee satisfaction-engagement and these business-unit outcomes. One implication is that changes in management practices that increase employee satisfaction may increase business-unit outcomes, including profit.
Empirical research demonstrates a relationship between happiness and career success. For example, happy people receive higher earnings, exhibit better performance, and obtain more favorable supervisor evaluations than their less happy peers. Researchers have posited that success leads to happiness, but Boehm and Lyubomirsky reviewed the relevant research in 2008 and argued that the alternative hypothesis—that happiness causes success—may be equally plausible. A decade later, we return to the literature to supplement studies we previously cited with new research and to determine whether the results of cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental investigations provide additional support for this hypothesis. We conclude that the evidence continues to persuasively suggest that happiness is correlated with and often precedes career success and that experimentally enhancing positive emotions leads to improved outcomes in the workplace.
This article examines the impact of unemployment on social participation using German panel data. We find negative and lasting effects for public social activities but also a retreat of individuals into private life. Issues of selection and endogeneity are addressed by using plant closures as exogenous entries into unemployment. Social norms and labour market prospects are shown to be relevant for explaining these findings. Our results advance the understanding of the consequences of unemployment for human well-being, highlight an hitherto unexplored channel through which unemployment influences economic outcomes (via changes in social capital) and point to an alternative explanation of unemployment hysteresis based on access to information.
Psychologists, self-help gurus, and parents all work to make their clients, friends, and children happier. Recent research indicates that happiness is functional and generally leads to success. However, most people are already above neutral in happiness, which raises the question of whether higher levels of happiness facilitate more effective functioning than do lower levels. Our analyses of large survey data and longitudinal data show that people who experience the highest levels of happiness are the most successful in terms of close relationships and volunteer work, but that those who experience slightly lower levels of happiness are the most successful in terms of income, education, and political participation. Once people are moderately happy, the most effective level of happiness appears to depend on the specific outcomes used to define success, as well as the resources that are available. © 2007, Association for Psychological Science. All rights reserved.
Rare and unexpected changes (deviants) in an otherwise repeated stream of task-irrelevant auditory distractors (standards) capture attention and impair behavioral performance in an ongoing visual task. Recent evidence indicates that this effect is increased by sadness in a task involving neutral stimuli. We tested the hypothesis that such effect may not be limited to negative emotions but reflect a general depletion of attentional resources by examining whether a positive emotion (happiness) would increase deviance distraction too. Prior to performing an auditory-visual oddball task, happiness or a neutral mood was induced in participants by means of the exposure to music and the recollection of an autobiographical event. Results from the oddball task showed significantly larger deviance distraction following the induction of happiness. Interestingly, the small amount of distraction typically observed on the standard trial following a deviant trial (post-deviance distraction) was not increased by happiness. We speculate that happiness might interfere with the disengagement of attention from the deviant sound back toward the target stimulus (through the depletion of cognitive resources and/or mind wandering) but help subsequent cognitive control to recover from distraction.
We look for evidence of adaptation in wellbeing to major life events using eighteen waves of British panel data. Adaptation to marriage, divorce, birth of child and widowhood appears to be rapid and complete; this is not so for unemployment. These findings are remarkably similar to those in previous work on German panel data. Equally, the time profiles with life satisfaction as the wellbeing measure are very close to those using a twelve-item scale of psychological functioning. As such, the phenomenon of adaptation may be a general one, rather than being found only in German data or using single-item wellbeing measures.
A rising share of employees now regularly engage in working from home (WFH), but there are concerns this can lead to “shirking
from home.” We report the results of a WFH experiment at Ctrip, a 16,000-employee, NASDAQ-listed Chinese travel agency. Call
center employees who volunteered to WFH were randomly assigned either to work from home or in the office for nine months.
Home working led to a 13% performance increase, of which 9% was from working more minutes per shift (fewer breaks and sick
days) and 4% from more calls per minute (attributed to a quieter and more convenient working environment). Home workers also
reported improved work satisfaction, and their attrition rate halved, but their promotion rate conditional on performance
fell. Due to the success of the experiment, Ctrip rolled out the option to WFH to the whole firm and allowed the experimental
employees to reselect between the home and office. Interestingly, over half of them switched, which led to the gains from
WFH almost doubling to 22%. This highlights the benefits of learning and selection effects when adopting modern management
practices like WFH. JEL Codes: D24, L23, L84, M11, M54, O31.
Subjective well-being is primarily treated as an outcome variable in the economic literature. However, is happiness also a driver of behavior and life's outcomes? Rich survey data of recent entrants into unemployment in Germany show that a significant inverted U-shaped relationship exists between residual happiness and an unemployed individual's future reemployment probability and the reentry wage. Residual life satisfaction displays higher (or lower) satisfaction levels than would be predicted by a number of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics.This paper is the first to show that happiness is mainly a predictor for self-employment and less for standard reemployment. Related findings suggest that happiness matters for male unemployed, and the concept of locus of control is able to explain part of the effect. If reemployment and higher wages are considered desirable outcomes for the unemployed individual and society, the shape of the effect suggests an optimal level of happiness, which is not necessarily the highest.
There is a growing literature suggesting important associations between the perceived work situation, individual health, and
organizational outcomes. Less research has investigated employee experiences in the moment, which might help explain why the
broader outcomes emerge. We examined momentary affect and cortisol from a within-day and between-day perspective, comparing
working time to nonworking time for employees in engaging and disengaging workplaces. Findings indicate significantly lower
momentary happiness and interest and higher stress and sadness are associated with work, and, in particular, with disengaging
work environments. The connections between momentary affect and cortisol confirmed prior research, but cortisol was higher
during non-work weekday moments. Employees with engaging work conditions had lower cortisol during weekday (working) mornings
in comparison to employees with disengaging work conditions. There was no difference on Saturdays. These results provide evidence
that work, and especially the work situation, is associated with affective and physiological momentary states.
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We examine how start-of-workday mood serves as an "affective prime" that relates to how employees see work events, how they feel subsequent to events, and how this felt affect relates to objective performance. Using experience sampling and both archival and coded performance, we tested these relationships in a call center. We found that start-of-workday mood relates to employee perceptions of customer affective display and employee affect subsequent to events (i.e., calls). Positive affect subsequent to events relates to coded performance quality, whereas negative affect subsequent to events relates to productivity. We find evidence that affect subsequent to events is a mediator.
We look for evidence of habituation in twenty waves of German panel data: do individuals tend to return to some baseline level of well-being after life and labour market events? Although the strongest life satisfaction effect is often at the time of the event, we find significant lag and lead effects. We cannot reject the hypothesis of complete adaptation to marriage, divorce, widowhood, birth of child and layoff. However, there is little evidence of adaptation to unemployment for men. Men are somewhat more affected by labour market events (unemployment and layoffs) than are women but in general the patterns of anticipation and adaptation are remarkably similar by sex.
I investigate whether two indicators of job-related well-being predict subsequent quitting. I find that both the Depression-Enthusiasm scale and the Anxiety-Comfort scale predict quitting, the former more strongly, and this contributes an element of criterion validity to their use as welfare measures. However, overall job satisfaction, which implicitly captures well-being relative to outside job opportunities, predicts job mobility better than either the Depression-Enthusiasm or the Anxiety-Comfort scale. I also find asymmetric effects: relative to intermediate levels, low well-being or job satisfaction are associated with greater quitting, yet high well-being or job satisfaction are not significantly associated with reduced quitting.
The effects of induced moods on interest in performing a wide spectrum of behaviors were examined in two experiments. In Experiment 1, subjects who received the Velten Mood Induction elation manipulation indicated significantly greater interest than neutral subjects in social, prosocial, strenuous, leisure, and general activities on a shortened version of the Pleasant Events Schedule. Subjects who received the depression induction indicated lower interest in social, leisure, and strenuous activities. Depressed mood was associated with an interest in sitting and thinking, being alone, and taking a nap, but depression produced no increase in interest in prosocial behavior or in 12 forms of self-gratification. Experiment 2 focused on seven potential mediators in the effects of mood on behavior interests. Following a positive, negative, or neutral mood induction, subjects were asked to record their positive and negative outcome expectancies, positive and negative emotion expectancies, and their self-perceptions of energy, ability, and opportunity for active and passive, social and nonsocial behaviors. Induced elation, depression, and neutral moods again were found to influence interest in both active and passive types of social and nonsocial behaviors. The subjects'' expectations of positive outcomes, and to a lesser extent their perceived energy for the behavior, were the strongest mediators of the effect of mood on behavior interests.
This paper analyzes the relationship between employee satisfaction and long-run stock returns. A value-weighted portfolio of the “100 Best Companies to Work For in America” earned an annual four-factor alpha of 3.5% from 1984 to 2009, and 2.1% above industry benchmarks. The results are robust to controls for firm characteristics, different weighting methodologies, and the removal of outliers. The Best Companies also exhibited significantly more positive earnings surprises and announcement returns. These findings have three main implications. First, consistent with human capital-centered theories of the firm, employee satisfaction is positively correlated with shareholder returns and need not represent managerial slack. Second, the stock market does not fully value intangibles, even when independently verified by a highly public survey on large firms. Third, certain socially responsible investing (SRI) screens may improve investment returns.
We report, for the first time in the literature, a cognitive-behavioural training waiting-list controlled study that changed employees’ attributional style, reduced turnover, increased productivity, and improved a number of individual differences measures of well-being. One hundred and sixty-six financial services sales agents (98% male, mean age 36.2 ± 9 years) were randomly assigned to either (a) a seven-week cognitive-behavioural training program or (b) a waiting-list.Significant improvements resulted in employees’ attributional style, job satisfaction, self-esteem, psychological well-being and general productivity. A significant reduction in employee turnover over a 4.5 month period was observed. The waiting-list control group replicated these results when they subsequently went through the same program. These findings demonstrate that work-related attitudes and behaviours, especially in motivationally challenging occupations, can be changed with cognitive-behavioural training to improve attributional style. The study is also valuable for personality and individual differences research because it shows how psychological variables can be changed by effective intervention in applied settings.
Most of us assume that success will lead to happiness. Shawn Achor, founder of the corporate strategy firm Good Think, argues that we've got it backward; in work he's done with KPMG and Pfizer, and studies he's conducted in concert with Yale's psychology department, he has seen how happiness actually precedes success. Happy employees are more productive, more creative, and better at problem solving than their unhappy peers. In this article, Achor lays out three strategies for improving your own mental well-being at work. In tough economic times, they're essential for keeping yourself-and your team-at peak performance.
This Study addresses the issue of whether positive employee attitudes and behaviors influence business outcomes or whether positive business outcomes influence positive employee attitudes and behaviors. We hypothesize that employee satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior, and employee turnover influence profitability and customer satisfaction. Data were gathered from the units of a regional restaurant chain via employee surveys, manager surveys, customer surveys, and organizational records. Cross-lagged regression analyses show that employee attitudes and behaviors at Time 1 are related to organizational effectiveness at Time 2. Additional cross-lagged regression analyses show no significant relationship between organizational effectiveness at Time 1 and the employee attitudes and behaviors at Time 2. These results add to the evidence that HR outcomes influence business outcomes, rather than the other way around. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Personnel Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Four experiments indicated that positive affect, induced by means of seeing a few minutes of a comedy film or by means of receiving a small bag of candy, improved performance on two tasks that are generally regarded as requiring creative ingenuity: Duncker's (1945) candle task and M. T. Mednick, S. A. Mednick, and E. V. Mednick's (1964) Remote Associates Test. One condition in which negative affect was induced and two in which subjects engaged in physical exercise (intended to represent affectless arousal) failed to produce comparable improvements in creative performance. The influence of positive affect on creativity was discussed in terms of a broader theory of the impact of positive affect on cognitive organization.