The Relationship Between Performance and Well-Being at Work: a Systematic Review of 20 Years and Future Perspectives in Brazil

ABSTRACT

The pursuit of high levels of performance and well-being at work is a shared goal in societies nowadays. The happy-productive worker thesis (HPWT) proposes a positive relationship, where “happy” workers will perform better than “unhappy” workers. However, other relationships found in the literature have encouraged a revision of this thesis. This systematic review aims to understand better how the relationship between performance and well-being has been analyzed in Brazil during the last 20 years. Results obtained with the review of 26 studies, revealed that most of them reported a synergic or positive and unidirectional relationship consistent with the HPWT. However, we also found support for null and antagonist relationships and differences in the types of operationalizations studied. We discuss that this area of study should adopt a broader perspective to understand the complexity of the relationships between both constructs, and we propose future research directions.

KEYWORDS: job performance, well-being, happy-productive worker thesis, job satisfaction.