Purpose This paper aims to examine the effect of subjective well-being, often referred to as happiness, on the relationship between organizational virtuousness and job performance among Japanese employees. The concept of happiness has been receiving more attention over the past decade as research suggests that it may be a source of greater performance. Design/methodology/approach This research uses a questionnaire survey and conditional process analysis among Japanese managers and front-line workers within Japanese firms in Japan. Findings This paper found that positive subjective well-being partially mediates the relationship between general organizational virtuousness and self-management-related job performance, while it acts as a moderator in the relationship between general organizational virtuousness and leadership-related job performance. Practical implications These findings indicate that in the Japanese context, the firm’s investment in organizational virtuousness will increase one part of job performance, but that investment may not be sufficient in itself to positively affect leadership competency, unless it also pays attention to its employees’ positive subjective well-being. Originality/value Based on this growing realization of the importance of subjective well-being, or happiness, and the lack of academic research in Japan on its impact on organization, this paper investigates its effect on employees’ ability to manage their own tasks and lead others.
PurposePast research has convincingly shown that higher employee subjective well-being, or happiness, is a source of higher job performance and retention. This paper therefore examines the relationships between organizational virtuousness, subjective well-being, and individual job performance among French and Japanese employees.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire survey was conducted among Japanese and French managers and staff at Japanese and French domestic companies and structural equation modeling was employed to compare those associations.FindingsWe found that the Japanese and the French have different conceptualizations of organizational virtuousness, suggesting that firms must tailor their virtue-building activities based on the local culture. Subjective well-being is comparatively more important in Japan since it acts in complement to organizational virtuousness to positively affect job performance, while in France, only organizational virtuousness counts as a source of job performance.Research implicationsNational culture is revealed to be a new factor explaining differences in how employees consider organizational virtuousness and we provide evidence of positive associations of organizational virtuousness with positive subjective well-being and with job performance for both the Japanese and the French.Practical implicationsOrganizational virtuousness cannot be construed from a universalistic perspective where virtues are conceptualized on the same basis regardless of location or region, and firms should also consider their employees' individualist or collectivist inclination when trying to influence work outcomes.Originality/valueThese findings point to the role of national culture on the perception of organizational virtuousness and its effect on subjective well-being and job performance.
Purpose This exploratory paper aims to examine attitudes and practices with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the effects of mandatory teleworking from home in the wake of the first state of emergency orders in Japan in 2020. Design/methodology/approach An online survey of married employees retrospectively assessed changes in work style, subjective well-being, work–family conflict and job performance before and during forced teleworking from home in Tokyo and three of the surrounding prefectures. Findings Regular employees reported high levels of anxiety and to have thoroughly implemented government-recommended hygiene and safety practices. A majority of respondents were satisfied with mandatory telework from home and desired to continue partial telework after the end of the pandemic. The strongest predictor of satisfaction with mandatory telework from home turned out to be adequate workspace at home for both men and women. However, the antecedents of the desire to continue working from home differed by gender. Practical implications These findings can help individuals, firms and governments better understand the effects of mandatory teleworking from home and devise countermeasures to maximize employee well-being and job performance. This is all the more crucial, as Japan has had successive waves of the virus and has declared numerous states of emergency since the beginning of the pandemic, forcing office workers to continue social distancing and remote working for the time being. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is one of the first to provide insights on how imposed teleworking from home in the context of COVID-19 in Japan affected regular employees’ personal and professional lives and to identify predictors of satisfaction with teleworking and the desire to continue doing so.
This paper examines the effects of job task characteristics and job satisfaction on subjective wellbeing, often referred to as happiness, among Japanese employees. Because past research has recognized happiness as a source of greater performance and on account of recent events related to 'karoshi'-or death by overwork, its antecedents in the workplace are of great interest for both research and practice. This research, using conditional process analysis with data gathered from Japanese managers and front-line workers within Japanese firms in Japan, found that job satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between job task characteristics and subjective well-being. Among job satisfaction factors, job satisfaction-self-accomplishment and-relatedness displayed the strongest mediating influence between job task characteristics and positive well-being. First, these findings suggest that companies cannot rely on job design alone to directly foster employee well-being but must ensure that task characteristics translate into work-related outcomes, such as job satisfaction. Second, at least for Japanese employees, careful attention to job design fostering job satisfaction-self-accomplishment and-relatedness is necessary to enhance subjective well-being. These results indicate that job satisfaction plays a central role in the relationship between job design and well-being.
Purpose As Japan has been slowly opening up to foreign workers to supplement its shrinking workforce, local employees have had to deal with increased diversity at work, owing to the presence of foreign coworkers. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between foreign coworkers’ nationality (specifically Chinese, Korean and those from Western countries) and the perception of the benefits and threats of cultural diversity in the workplace by Japanese employees. Design/methodology/approach A sample of Japanese employees working in Japan, half of which working with foreigners, was used, focusing on those Japanese employees who reported working with foreign coworkers of a single nationality. Findings The authors found that Japanese workers’ perceived benefits of cultural diversity at work, but not perceived threats, are significantly impacted by the unique nationality of their foreign coworkers. Specifically, the effect of coworker nationality is most apparent for the two benefits of “understanding of diverse groups in society” and “social environment,” whereby cultural distance is significantly and positively related to these perceived benefits. And more benefits from cultural diversity at work are perceived by Japanese employees in the presence of Western or Chinese, rather than South Korean coworkers. Practical implications In the Japanese context, hiring employees from certain distant and heterogeneous cultures and nationalities could increase the positive perception of multiculturalism at work, therefore facilitating diversity management and fostering inclusion in the culture of the firm. Originality/value Very little research in Japan has examined perception biases among native employees based on the nationality of their foreign coworkers, which is critical as globally minded Japanese firms are trying to increase their level of internal internationalization.
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