Wellbeing: A Complete Reference Guide, Volume III, Work and Wellbeing

Chapter 6

The Happy Worker

Revisiting the “Happy—Productive Worker” Thesis

Peter Hosie

Curtin University, Australia

Nada ElRakhawy

Al Garhoud Private Hospital, United Arab Emirates

When you feel good about yourself, you perform better. And when you perform well, you feel good about yourself. Neither can endure without the other.

Tracey (1993), p. 69

Introduction

For over half a century, the universal happy–productive worker thesis has captured and held the imagination of organizational researchers and practitioners. Proponents of this idea believe that “a happy worker is a good worker.” Support for this commonsense theory is based on the belief that happy workers perform better on the job than their unhappy colleagues. Decades of research have attempted to establish a firm link between workers' happiness and performance. A thorough review is undertaken here into the impact of two important aspects of job happiness: affective wellbeing and intrinsic job satisfaction. Qualified support for the happy–productive worker thesis was found by linking the conceptual bases relating to workers' affective wellbeing, intrinsic job satisfaction, and performance. Practical outcomes of this investigation are addressed, such as how workers' jobs can be changed to enhance or prevent a decline in happiness, and how these findings might be integrated with workplace initiatives to improve workers' job performance.

In the twenty-first century, happiness in the workplace is well and truly back in vogue. ...