Well-being, parity and decent work: a meta-analytic review of psychological capital and employee well-being literature

PurposePsychological capital (Psycap) and employee well-being (EWB) have both been identified as constructs within positive psychology; however, there is a lack of detailed investigation that establish their relationship. This study aims to examine how Psycap affects EWB and ascertain the significance they hold for each other in diverse geographical and organizational contexts. This meta-analysis is a step toward accomplishing United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) – 3, 5 and 8.Design/methodology/approachUsing content and meta-analysis, this study combines findings from 5,169 respondents worldwide, published between 2016 and 2025. The comprehensive review analyzes academic literature by identifying key authors, documents, keywords and journals while examining existing literature and patterns.FindingsThe meta-analysis unanimously indicates a significant positive association between Psycap and EWB. The meta-method indicates that this primal association is moderated by gender; wherein the association becomes a little accentuated for women. This goes on to state that the association between Psycap and EWB shall be more meaningful in the case of women participants, though the increase is abysmal. This ascertains that gender is an essential indicator of moderating the Psycap–EWB relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors identify the association between Psycap and EWB to be mitigated by gender; future investigations need to substantiate this with perennial and consistent research Moreover, future aggregation studies may use other databases, such as Google Scholar and EBSCO, to increase the number of relevant articles. Conclusively, they can think of analyzing this association under qualitative parameters, like theoretical frameworks, region, industry and culture.Practical implicationsThe current meta-analysis indicates that firms invest and analyze psycap of an employee, as this may lead to employee happiness, which is theoretically evinced to influence organizational and individual performance. Firms may also try to induct women employees, as the current meta-analysis is indicative of an accentuated feeling of well-being on the inducement of positive psycap. Specifically, the current investigations have broader implications for organizations and policymakers.Social implicationsThe study is in sync with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDG) 3 (well-being), UN-SDG 5 (gender parity) and UN-SDG 8 (decent work).Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, the study is an initial meta-analysis that has triangulated previous research on Psycap and EWB, with major studies coming from the Asian context. Second, the current investigation has incorporated mixed empirical results, based on distinct variable measurements that rationalize the inferences considerably. Finally, this study excavates the relevance of moderating variables that offer significant cues for theory and practice.