From happiness to flourishing at work: a Southern African perspective

Abstract

Organizations around the world recognize the importance of measuring subjective well-being and promoting it as part of a strategic approach to human resource management. The focus is increasingly shifting to multidimensional indicators of employee happiness in the work context. The concept flourishing incorporates two dimensions of happiness; namely, feeling good and functioning well. This study aims to identify dimensions of employee flourishing, and to investigate the antecedents and outcomes thereof in the southern African work and organizational context. The findings of various studies were reviewed, and data gathered from a sample of managers in South Africa (N = 505) was used to explore the dimensions, antecedents, and outcomes of flourishing. The results showed that flourishing individuals feel good (i.e., are satisfied with their jobs and experience positive emotions at work), function psychologically well (i.e., are energetic, dedicated, self-determined, find meaning and purpose at work, and experience harmony), and function socially well (in terms of social acceptance, social growth, social contribution, social coherence, and social integration). It was found that flourishing in work and organizational contexts, and flourishing in everyday life, shared 54 % of the variance. However, flourishing in work and organizational contexts was better predicted by job contextual factors, and it also predicted organizational outcomes better than did flourishing in general.