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, opening up challenging avenues for future empirical research to clarify important questions about the relationship between happiness and performance in organizations.

Nearly half of workers agree that their workspace is unsuitable for their work tasks. Furthermore, it is assumed that happy workers often perform better than unhappy ones. Nevertheless, due to the effect of the emotional-cognitive processes, the misfit between employees’ office type and their work patterns (complexity and interactivity) may hamper this relationship between well-being and performance. This diary study on 83 office workers ( n = 603 time points) combines information about work patterns identified by using cluster analysis with Neufert’s office type classification. Results show that the work pattern–office type (mis)fit moderates the relationship between well-being and performance. The “fit” group shows four out of six positive associations: flow and positive emotions with in-role performance, and positive emotions and activity worthwhileness with extra-role performance. The “misfit” group shows only one out of six positive associations. Thus, the office environment–work pattern fit has a relationship to in-role and extra-role performance.

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Sustaining employees’ well-being and high performance at work is a challenge for organizations in today’s highly competitive environment. This study examines the dynamic reciprocal relationship between the variability in office workers’ eudaimonic well-being (i.e., activity worthwhileness) and their extra-role performance. Eighty-three white-collar employees filled in a diary questionnaire twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, on four consecutive working days. The results show that eudaimonic well-being displays clear variability in a short time frame. In addition, Bayesian Multilevel Structural Equation Models (MSEMs) reveal a significant positive relationship between the levels of state eudaimonic well-being in the afternoon and the increase in the levels of state extra-role performance from that afternoon to the next morning. Moreover, the overall levels of self-reported state eudaimonic well-being across the diary measurements are significantly and positively related to the overall levels of extra-role performance assessed by the supervisor during the diary measurement. Finally, there is a significant negative relationship between the amount of intra-individual variability in state eudaimonic well-being during the week and the overall levels of self-rated state extra-role performance during the same week. These findings shed light on the dynamic nature of both the eudaimonic component of well-being and performance, highlighting the importance of eudaimonic well-being for extra-role performance and expanding the happy-productive worker thesis. The results suggest that the daily eudaimonic experience of meaning at work should complement the experience of hedonic well-being because it is an important factor in achieving better and more sustainable employee performance on a daily basis.

This study analyzes the mediating role of the appraisal of environmental stressors in the relationship between physical characteristics in the offices and health symptoms. It also studies the moderating role of positive emotions in the relationship between physical characteristics and the appraisal of environmental stressors using a diary study on 59 office workers (n = 432 time points) and sensor data. The results show that the appraisal of environmental stressors mediates the relationship between physical office characteristics and health symptoms, emphasizing the important link of stress appraisal in the stressors-strain relationship. The results also show that positive emotions moderate the relationship between the sound level and the appraisal of noise, supporting the fact that emotions can have an impact on people's appraisals. The contributions of this study are the objective measurement of physical stressors in offices, along with their appraisals by the office users, using the diary study design.