Psychological well-being and job satisfaction as predictors of job performance

J Occup Health Psychol. 2000 Jan;5(1):84-94. doi: 10.1037//1076-8998.5.1.84.

Abstract

The happy-productive worker hypothesis has most often been examined in organizational research by correlating job satisfaction to performance. Recent research has expanded this to include measures of psychological well-being. However, to date, no field research has provided a comparative test of the relative contribution of job satisfaction and psychological well-being as predictors of employee performance. The authors report 2 field studies that, taken together, provide an opportunity to simultaneously examine the relative contribution of psychological well-being and job satisfaction to job performance. In Study 1, psychological well-being, but not job satisfaction, was predictive of job performance for 47 human services workers. These findings were replicated in Study 2 for 37 juvenile probation officers. These findings are discussed in terms of research on the happy-productive worker hypothesis.

MeSH terms

  • Adaptation, Psychological*
  • Adult
  • California
  • Employee Performance Appraisal*
  • Female
  • Happiness
  • Humans
  • Job Satisfaction*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Social Work