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Well-being and Trust in the Workplace

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  • John F. Helliwell
  • Haifang Huang

Abstract

This paper summarizes and extends our recent work using life satisfaction regressions to estimate the relative values of financial and non-financial job characteristics. The well-being results show strikingly large values for non-financial job characteristics, especially workplace trust and other measures of the quality of social capital in workplaces. For example, an increase of trust in management that is about one tenth of the scale is equivalent to more than 30% increase in monetary income. We find that these values differ significantly by gender and by union status. We consider the reasons for such large values, and explore their implications for employers, employees, and policy-makers.

Suggested Citation

  • John F. Helliwell & Haifang Huang, 2008. "Well-being and Trust in the Workplace," NBER Working Papers 14589, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14589
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    Cited by:

    1. John F. Helliwell & David Gyarmati & Craig Joyce & Heather Orpana, 2020. "Building an Epidemiology of Happiness," NBER Working Papers 28095, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. S. Cicognani & M. Cioni & M. Savioli, 2016. "The secret to job satisfaction is low expectations: How perceived working conditions differ from actual ones," Working Papers wp1083, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    3. Laibson, David I. & Agarwal, Sumit & Driscoll, John C. & Gabaix, Xavier, 2009. "The Age of Reason: Financial Decisions over the Life-Cycle with Implications for Regulation," Scholarly Articles 4554335, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    4. Tim Pawlowski & Paul Downward & Simona Rasciute, 2014. "Does national pride from international sporting success contribute to well-being? An international investigation," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(2), pages 121-132, April.
    5. John F. Helliwell & Lara B. Aknin & Hugh Shiplett & Haifang Huang & Shun Wang, 2017. "Social Capital and Prosocial Behaviour as Sources of Well-Being," NBER Working Papers 23761, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Christoph Glatz & Anja Eder, 2020. "Patterns of Trust and Subjective Well-Being Across Europe: New Insights from Repeated Cross-Sectional Analyses Based on the European Social Survey 2002–2016," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 148(2), pages 417-439, April.
    7. Lasierra, Jose Manuel, 2018. "Work and family as factors determining Individual Subjective Well-Being in Spain," MPRA Paper 89404, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Silvia Sacchetti & Ermanno Tortia, 2013. "Satisfaction with Creativity: A Study of Organizational Characteristics and Individual Motivation," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(6), pages 1789-1811, December.
    9. Awan, Ashar & Hamdani, Nisar, 2015. "Achieving Job Satisfaction through Spirituality: A Case Study of Muslim Employees," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 1(1), pages 119-152.
    10. Haiping Xu & Chuqiao Zhang & Yawen Huang, 2023. "Social trust, social capital, and subjective well-being of rural residents: micro-empirical evidence based on the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS)," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    11. Joan Torrent-Sellens & Jackeline Velazco-Portocarrero & Clara Viñas-Bardolet, 2018. "Knowledge-Based Work and Job Satisfaction: Evidence from Spain," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 9(2), pages 575-612, June.
    12. Altman, Morris, 2014. "Insights from behavioral economics on how labor markets work," Working Paper Series 18843, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.
    13. Nagamani Subramanian & M. Suresh, 2022. "Social Sustainability Factors Influencing the Implementation of Sustainable HRM in Manufacturing SMEs," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 469-507, December.
    14. John Helliwell & Shun Wang, 2014. "Weekends and Subjective Well-Being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 116(2), pages 389-407, April.
    15. Weziak-Bialowolska, Dorota & Lee, Matthew T. & Cowden, Richard G. & Bialowolski, Piotr & Chen, Ying & VanderWeele, Tyler J. & McNeely, Eileen, 2023. "Psychological caring climate at work, mental health, well-being, and work-related outcomes: Evidence from a longitudinal study and health insurance data," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 323(C).
    16. Zofia Mockałło & Maria Widerszal-Bazyl, 2021. "Role of job and personal resources in the appraisal of job demands as challenges and hindrances," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-21, March.
    17. Adelaida Lillo-Bañuls & José M Casado-Díaz & Hipólito Simón, 2018. "Examining the determinants of job satisfaction among tourism workers," Tourism Economics, , vol. 24(8), pages 980-997, December.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects

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