Abstract
We aimed to make a theoretical contribution to the happy-productive worker thesis by expanding the study to cases where this thesis does not fit. We hypothesized and corroborated the existence of four relations between job satisfaction and innovative performance: (a) unhappy-unproductive, (b) unhappy-productive, (c) happy-unproductive, and (d) happy-productive. We also aimed to contribute to the happy-productive worker thesis by studying some conditions that influence and differentiate among the four patterns. Hypotheses were tested in a sample of 513 young employees representative of Spain. Cluster analysis and discriminant analysis were performed. We identified the four patterns. Almost 15 % of the employees had a pattern largely ignored by previous studies (e.g., unhappy-productive). As hypothesized, to promote well-being and performance among young employees, it is necessary to fulfill the psychological contract, encourage initiative, and promote job self-efficacy. We also confirmed that over-qualification characterizes the unhappy-productive pattern, but we failed to confirm that high job self-efficacy characterizes the happy-productive pattern. The results show the relevance of personal and organizational factors in studying the well-being-performance link in young employees.
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Acknowledgments
The present study has been prepared with the support of the project PSI2012-36557 funded by DGICYT, the funding of the Generalitat Valenciana for research groups of excellence PROMETEO 2012/048. The first author has received a pre-doctoral scholarship, CVU 326153, from the National Council on Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACYT), and a scholarship as visiting scholar, KM-14-9110, from the Center of International Mobility (CIMO), from the government of Finland. The authors also thank the IVIE for the authorization to use the data base from the Spanish Observatory of Youth Labor Market Entry and Employment.
The authors also want to thank the anonymous reviewers of previous versions of this paper for their recommendations.
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Ayala, Y., Peiró Silla, J.M., Tordera, N. et al. Job Satisfaction and Innovative Performance in Young Spanish Employees: Testing New Patterns in the Happy-Productive Worker Thesis—A Discriminant Study. J Happiness Stud 18, 1377–1401 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-016-9778-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-016-9778-1