Revisiting the happy-productive worker thesis from a eudaimonic perspective: A systematic review Academic Article in Scopus uri icon

abstract

  • © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.The happy-productive worker thesis (HPWT) is considered the Holy Grail of management research, and it proposes caeteris paribus, happy workers show higher performance than their unhappy counterparts. However, eudaimonic well-being in the relationship between happiness and performance has been understudied. This paper provides a systematized review of empirical evidence in order to make a theoretical contribution to the happy-productive worker thesis from a eudaimonic perspective. Our review covers 105 quantitative studies and 188 relationships between eudaimonic well-being and performance. Results reveal that analyzing the eudaimonic facet of well-being provides general support for the HPWT and a much more comprehensive understanding of how it has been studied. However, some gaps and nuances are identified and discussed, open-ing up challenging avenues for future empirical research to clarify important questions about the relationship between happiness and performance in organizations.

publication date

  • March 2, 2021