No abstract

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.

Traditional Human Resource Management (HRM) focusing on maintaining the status quo is no longer in the spotlight. Sustainable HRM has become the new approach, emphasizing the need to attend to organizational results directed toward reaching different goals and integrating the needs of diverse stakeholders. Moreover, in response to the challenges that organizations face in volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environments, Human Resource (HR) practices can contribute to the development of idiosyncratic deals (negotiation of individual HR practices) that might facilitate employees’ creativity and eudaimonic well-being in the long term and, thus, the sustainability of these organizations. Thus, the aim of this study is to test the mediating role of idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) in the unfolding relationship between HR practices, eudaimonic well-being and creative performance. Using a longitudinal database (three waves), the hypotheses are tested using structural equations modeling. The results support the idea that HR practices function as an antecedent for i-deals. More specifically, i-deals fully mediate the relationship between HR practices and eudaimonic well-being. In turn, i-deals and eudaimonic well-being fully mediate the relationship between HR practices and creative performance, which suggests that, through i-deals, HR practices become more beneficial for both employees and employers. In conclusion, these results are important for sustainable HR development, because HR practices enhance i-deals, which increase well-being, enhancing performance in the long term.

Amsterdam), and Sabina Hodžić (ESSCA École de Management) for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this study. We also want to thank Mariano Meseguer and his research team from Murcia University for providing the database to carry out the EFA included in this study. We would also like to thank the reviewers and the editors for helping us to improve this article.We included the photographs as indicated in the submission webpage