Souvenirs, souvenirs : une étude de la relation bien-être au travail rétrospectif – bien-être actuel

Wellbeing at work seems to have many virtues that benefit both the organization and the employee. Consequently, identifying conditions for its development is an important research issue for HRM. The theory of treadmill effect suggests in this regard that the general well-being returns inexorably to a set point despite temporal fluctuations due to episodic events. This set point and the return period would be personal predispositions. This result suggests that managerial efforts are useless. The aim of this research is to enrich this theory: we test its general hypothesis in the restricted area of work by adopting the perspective of psychological rather than chronological time. Empirical data collected from 374 employees reveal that a back-and-forth phenomenon exists following a job change. The current well-being is linked significantly to the recollection of well-being in the previous job. Contrary to the salary increase, the improvement of the work contract or of the hierarchical status significantly delay the return to the set point. These evidences reveal the importance of taking into account the functioning of employee's memory at the time of boundaryless career. At the managerial level, they lead to recommendations for career support.